The Woodward Academy, Year 6

Chapter 7: December

"Lab results are back," Tanya said to David, leaning in through his office door.  He got up and walked into her office.  Because David's hands were already full with the serial killer, and he wanted to make sure the case got full attention, he'd given Tanya the lead on Rose's case, but he still wanted to be informed of everything that went on.

"Anything?" he asked.  She handed it over.  As he read, she summarized.

"The hairs we found are the wrong color, based on what Rose described.  We have no usable fingerprints, which is not strange, since she said he was wearing gloves for most of the time.  She also said something strange.  She said he wore a rubber.  A rubber what?"

David smirked.  "It's an Earth term for a condom."

"Oh!  Okay, well... that would explain the lack of DNA in the lab sample.  Essentially, we haven't got much, and what we do have contradicts our victim.  I'm personally inclined to believe our victim.  The hair could have come from someone else who had visited recently."

"Possible.  Let me check on something and get back to you.  Do you have any other leads in this case?"

"Still canvassing the campus to see if anyone else has information on this scumbag.  A few people remember seeing him, but always in Rose's presence, and they don't know him beyond that."

David nodded.  "Keep on it."

"Of course."

"All rise," the bailiff intoned.  As he went through the rest of his spiel, David looked at the defendant.  He was concerned about what this guy had up his sleeve.

"Okay, everyone be seated.  Miss Young, Mr. Fielding, how we doin' today?"

"Just fine, Your Honor," Miss Young said.

"Swell," Mr. Fielding replied.

"Okay, what've we got, Robin?"

The court clerk set the file before him.  "The crown versus Charles Faggioni and Gulbort Duganyiy.  Extortion and racketeering."

"Okay.  Is the crown ready to proceed?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"The defense?"

Faggioni rose.  "Yes, Your Honor," he said, then sat back down.

"The crown may call its first witness."

David sat and watched as the crown called Bridget and a couple other shopkeepers.  They then called Vivian, as she was the senior officer between them.  Finally, she called him to the stand.

After being sworn in, David sat and waited.

Miss Young said, "Officer Stroud, let's keep this simple.  What can you add to Officer Columbo's testimony?"

"Not much.  Since we covered this case together, we both saw and heard the same things.  I really can't think of anything she left out."

"So, you heard the conversation between Mr. Faggioni, Mr. Duganyiy, and several other men?"

"Yes."

"And what was said during that conversation?"

"They were discussing what to do about Bridget's refusal to pay protection money."

"Objection, Your Honor," Faggioni said immediately.  "The term 'protection money' is a loaded and biased term, and I cannot allow-"

David cut him off.  "You told Bridget that you could protect her from any activities by the local gang population if she would give you money for that task.  By definition, that makes it protection money."

The magistrate looked at Faggioni and shrugged.  "He's got you.  Objection overruled.  Continue."

Miss Young asked, "And what, if any, decision was reached on what to do about Bridget's refusal?"

"They decided to destroy the pub.  With her inside of it."

"They specifically mentioned that she should be inside?"

"When the decision was reached, one of the... 'other men' mentioned that she lived there, and would thus be there when the building was destroyed.  Mr. Faggioni indicated that this would make it less likely that anyone would refuse their protection again."

"I have no further questions for this witness, Your Honor."

"Mr. Faggioni?" the magistrate asked.

"Oh, yes," Mr. Faggioni said rising.  "Mr. Stroud, you're not an actual Rimohr, are you?"

"I am a Rimohr intern," David replied.

"So, just a trainee," Faggioni continued.

"No, sir.  As an intern, I have full authority, as long as I am in the company of other Rimohrs.  The only exception to this rule is that I am not allowed to arrest anyone."

"But, shall we at least say, a rookie?  A newbie?  A neophyte?"

"I've been on the job for about five and a half months."

"So, you're probably not even clear yet on procedure, let alone investigative technique..."

"Mr. Faggioni, before becoming a Rimohr, I worked for the security department of Woodward Academy for two years in volunteer positions.  I'm well versed in investigations.  As to procedure, I will admit that comes to me on a case-by-case basis."

"So, you didn't really know what you were doing when you were asked to look into the complaint made by Miss Bridget."

"I believe I did.  Moreover, any place I might have been deficient would have been filled in by my supervising officer, in this case, Vivian Columbo."

"I see.  But the point is that you, yourself, don't yet have the full knowledge of a Rimohr."

"That is technically correct."

"So your judgments are, at best, inexperienced.  At worst, uninformed."

"I wouldn't characterize them that way, but I hardly think it's important in this case, as I wasn't making any judgments."

"Weren't you?  Didn't you assume that I was threatening Bridget when I made my offer, when in fact, all I was offering was a membership in a neighborhood crime prevention group."

"For two thousand granas a month?  Those are some hellacious dues.  Further, as I later heard you speaking very openly about damaging the pub in direct response to her rejection, again, no judgment was needed."

"Except you had to make a judgment about whether to follow us or not.  If your judgment had been... well, let's just say different, then you would not have heard any of my further conversations, now would you have?"

"Except that, also, was not a judgment call, because we were specifically following up on a complaint against you, not some anonymous threatening individual."

"Hmm.  Mr. Stroud, it's true that you're a demighost, correct?"

"Yes, and the court is well aware of this fact."

"Were you visible at the time you claim to have heard my conversation with the other gentlemen?"

"Visible and solid," David confirmed.

"Then why didn't we see you?"

"It was dark and you weren't paying attention."

"Come now, Mr. Stroud.  Weren't you, in fact, invisible, and thus unable to testify about any of this?"

"No, I was not.  And, if that were, in fact, true, why didn't you see Officer Columbo, either?  She was there, too."

Faggioni frowned, but didn't let it upset him.  "You claim that in our conversation, we discussed the destruction of the Mystic Wolf Pub.  Did you record that conversation?"

"No.  We didn't have a recording device with us."

"So all we have is the word of an untrained almost-Rimohr demighost."

"Corroborated in full by a full-fledged Rimohr Officer, yes."

"An officer who, as your lover, would do whatever necessary to back you up."

"Excuse me?"

"Come now, Mr. Stroud.  You were seen leaving the Mystic Wolf arm in arm, talking in low tones.  It is quite clear that the two of you were having a liaison."

David snorted.  "While Officer Columbo and I are, in fact, good friends, we're not quite that close.  What the patrons of the pub saw was exactly what we wanted them to see: a couple on a date.  It's called being undercover, Mr. Faggioni."

"So lying is a regular part of your duties?" Faggioni asked.

"Hiding who we are is a normal part of operations during an investigation, yes."

"So, if lying is normal for a Rimohr, how can we believe anything you tell us now?"

"The patrons of the bar didn't place me under oath to tell them the truth, Mr. Faggioni," David said.

"Well.  One would expect a public servant not to need incentive to be truthful to the citizens.  No further questions for this witness, Your Honor."

David looked puzzled, but stepped down from the witness stand.  He went back to his seat to watch the remainder of the trial.

"Mr. Faggioni, Mr. Duganyiy, please rise," The magistrate intoned.  The defendants rose to receive judgment.

"It is the opinion of this magistrate that the two of you are guilty as sin.  It is, unfortunately, the opinion of this court that the crown has not presented sufficient evidence to prove its case with reasonable certainty.  I am therefore entering a verdict of not guilty.  You are free to go."

Faggioni punched Duganyiy in the arm, and they both headed down the aisle toward the door.  As he passed David, he said, "Better luck next time, Junior."

David glared after the man, but Faggioni didn't even look back.

Fuck.

Rose knocked lightly on David's office door, causing him to look up from his paperwork.

"You wanted to see me, David?"

"Yeah.  Come on in and have a seat."  David went into the outer room for a second, to call Tanya in, as it was her case.  Once she joined them, David closed the door.

"Rose," he said, "I wanted to go over your description of your attacker one more time, just to make sure we're all clear on it."

"Okay," she said, confused.  She reiterated her description exactly as she had before.

David sighed.  "The problem we're having," he said to her, "is that your description doesn't match the evidence we found at the scene.  Had there been anyone else in your dorm room that day, or in the preceding couple days?"

"No.  You think I'm making this up?" she asked shakily.

"No, nothing like that.  We live in a world of magic.  There are any number of reasons that things don't add up the way they should.  The first thing we have to check is the most straightforward.  I believe you're telling us what you saw.  But the question is, did you see what you saw?"

"Huh?"

"Were you seeing the truth, or were you seeing a well-crafted lie?  Was your date, in other words, using a glamour?"

"I... don't know.  I obviously didn't recognize it as one if he was."

David nodded.

Tanya interjected.  "There's no way for us to know, is there?"

"There is.  It's what I told you I needed to check on the other day.  There is a process, one of the few officially sanctioned legal divination processes, that will allow us to find out if you were seeing a glamour or not.  Unfortunately, it will not give us a real face.  It will only tell us if the face we've got right now is fake."

"Great, so who do we get to do this?"

"I can do it.  I learned how yesterday after that goddamned trial.  But there's a catch."

"What's the catch?" Rose asked.

"The process will be fairly unpleasant for you," David said.  "In order to try to figure out if you were seeing a glamour or not, I have to access the part of you that controls magic.  You see, what I'm going to be looking at is the part of your mind that senses whether magic is being used.  Often we're not aware of when magic is being used in our presence, because we don't look for it.  It is possible that you subconsciously noted the glamour, however.  But in digging this deeply into your mind, you will feel decidedly uncomfortable, emotionally."

"I'm already uncomfortable emotionally," Rose told him.  "If this will help us catch that bastard, then I'm all for it."

"Okay.  I want us to do this up in the infirmary.  That way, if you get to feeling really bad, we have help on hand."

Rose nodded.  The three of them headed out of the office and rode up to the Academy level, then walked over to Belleci Hall and into the infirmary.

"Hello, David," Annie said with a smile.  "What can I do for you folks?"

"Hey, Annie," David said.  "I need to borrow a bed for a few minutes.  We're going to perform a magical scan that might make Rose feel decidedly ill, and I thought we should be here, just in case."

"Oh, well, that's probably a good idea.  All the beds are empty today, so pick whichever you like."

David motioned Rose to lie down on the nearest one, and then he reached into his coat and pulled out a circular crystal of a deep, cobalt blue.  He placed it on her forehead.

"Close your eyes," he said quietly.  Rose did so, but she was frowning.

"Are you okay?" David asked her.

"Scared, a little," she admitted.

David reached down and took her hand.  She gripped it tightly.

"Thanks," she told him.

"Okay," he said, keeping his voice quiet to try to help her stay calm.  "I'm going to begin now.  I won't be able to talk while I'm doing this.  In fact, I won't even be able to hear you speak to me.  Try to relax.  I'm not going to read any of your thoughts, so please don't worry about your privacy."

"You already know my secrets, anyway," she told him with a small grin.

David smirked.  "Here we go."

Rose jolted slightly as David began his incantation.  His mind began to slide into hers, through the crystal.  It focused his attention deep within her, looking for the part of her that controlled the magic.  When he made the connection, he jolted himself.  So much power ran through this part of any wizard's mind, it was a dangerous place to visit.  David had to be careful lest he seriously hurt himself mentally.

Remembering what he'd been taught, he sifted through the memories of magic, looking for her encounters with Dennis Waldrop.  It seemed to take him forever to find what he was looking for.  Once he had, he began to pull back from her mind.  This had to be done slowly for both their sakes.  If he pulled out rapidly, they would both suffer terrible headaches for days to come.

Finally, David's consciousness moved back into his own being, and he opened his eyes.  He had to let go of Rose's hand as he gripped the bed, feeling horribly dizzy himself.  Annie was there quickly to steady him.

"You all right?" she asked.

David closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, willing the dizziness to pass.  A quick use of caput calitatem, and he felt much better.  Opening his eyes, he nodded to Annie, who let him go.

Having his own problems dealt with, he looked to Rose.  "Are you okay?" she appeared to have been crying.

Rose sniffed, then nodded.  "I felt very sad while you were doing... whatever you were doing."

David nodded.  "I'm sorry.  It can't be helped."

"I'm okay now," she assured him.

Tanya asked, "So, did you get any clues?"

"What Rose saw was a glamour.  Apparently a very, very good one, because no one, not Rose nor anyone else who saw this guy, recognized it as one."

"Great.  Now we have no clues at all," Tanya grumped.

"Not true.  Now the hairs you found are almost certain to be the attacker's.  And his basic body size has to be about the same, or his physical movements wouldn't have matched up with the glamour.  So we do know rough height, and hair color.  We don't know anything else, but get started with that."

"Right.  We'll get right on it," she told David.  She nodded to Rose, and then headed out.

"I guess I was just stupid," Rose said.  "I shouldn't have trusted him."

David took her hand again.  "With your chosen interests, there is a higher inherent risk.  You weren't stupid, Rose... but you do need to be a bit more careful with who you let into that section of your love life."

Rose nodded.  "I guess I got careless.  I've had no problems up until now.  And he seemed like he was part of the community.  He discussed all the right things like safe words and such."

David nodded.  "He did his research to put his targets at ease.  You're probably not his first victim.  If we don't catch him, you probably won't be his last."

"But if he's not a student, you guys can't do anything to him, can you?"

"If I find him, Rose, he'll beg me to take him to the Rimohrs.  Trust me."

Rose smiled at David in understanding.  He squeezed her hand then let go.

"You feeling okay now?" he asked.  She nodded, and so he helped her up off the bed.  "Let's let Annie get back to reading her healer journals, then."

Rose giggled, and the two left the infirmary together.  David escorted her back to her room, and she gave him a strong hug.

"Thanks for all your help.  I mean, I know it's your job now, but still, it's not your job to be so personally concerned for me."

"I still consider you a friend, Rose.  I don't like seeing you in pain.  If you need to talk, you know how to get in touch with me."

Rose nodded, then she gave him a soft kiss before letting him go and entering her dorm room.

  "Are you sure this is wise?" Jailla asked.

"Wise or not, it has to be done.  We fucked up and let this guy walk.  I have to make sure that Bridget doesn't pay the price for that."

"And you brought me along, why?  You don't usually involve me in your case work."

"I needed someone to watch my back.  Chances are I will have my back to the big ugly one.  If he tries to attack me, you can warn me."

"A good thought."

David walked down the dark street until he found what he was looking for.  Faggioni and his goon were chatting with some Clan members.  They saw David coming and they all puffed up, trying to look much tougher than David knew them to be.

One of them, presumably the local leader, stepped in front of David.

"What you want?"

"For you to get the fuck out of my way," David replied.  Jailla flew off to a perch on a lamppost.

"And if I don't?"

David slugged the man as hard as he could right in the solar plexus.  The man dropped like a sack of potatoes.  He was gasping for air, unable to draw air into his lungs.

"Hey, fucker, who do you think you are?"

"Leave," David told them.  "I need to speak with Mr. Faggioni alone."

"You don't tell me what to do, fucknuts."

David pulled out his wand and zapped the punk with an extremely bright blast of lightning.  The punk dropped to the ground, his body shuddering and twitching.

"He'll wake up in two or three... weeks.  Now, unless you all want the same, I'd suggest you be somewhere else."

Grudgingly, the gang moved off.

"What's on your mind, Officer?" Faggioni asked.

"Oh, no.  See?  No badge.  I'm not here as a Rimohr."

"So if I cut off your head and leave you here bleeding on the ground, no one will care?"

"The Rimohrs would care no matter who you did that to.  But you don't have the ability to do it to me, so let's cut the shit, Faggioni."

David grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him, very hard, into the wall behind him.  Faggioni's eyes spun slightly from the impact to the back of his head.

"You were able to beat the extortion charge.  I'll give you credit for that," David told him.  "So this is just a friendly little warning.  If Bridget should be killed... hurt... harassed... if she develops a motherfucking hangnail, I'll be back.  And then you will learn what it really means to be haunted by a demighost."

The look on David's face was murderous, and Faggioni knew that this was no idle threat.  Tough as he tried to appear, he knew when he was outclassed in the violence department.

His partner, however, was too stupid to know when to be scared.  Gulbort, seeing his boss in trouble, reached back with his huge fist, ready to strike David in the back of the head.

Jailla, seeing the punch coming, shrieked a warning to David.  In response, David simply faded to insubstantiality.

Gulbort was too uneducated to know what the sudden shimmering around David meant, and it was too dark to tell that he was see-through, so he carried through with the punch, his fist passing right through David's head.

Luckily for Faggioni, Gulbort missed hitting him directly.  The glancing blow was enough to shatter his cheekbone and bust his nose.  Faggioni slid down the wall to the ground.

"Boss!" Gulbort screamed.

"Nice work, dickhead," David said, fading back to solidity.  "You just put your own friend in the infirmary.  Hell, with friends like you around, he hardly needs to worry about me."

David would have given a final warning to Faggioni, but he was currently unconscious, so David just walked away.  He knew this matter was not over, but he had to protect Bridget as best he could.  He owed her that: she'd asked for their help, and they hadn't done their job.  The bad guy was still on the street.

David sat in the darkness across from the Mystic Wolf Pub.  It was his third night of surveillance.  He'd expected a reaction much faster than this, but he knew it would come eventually.

Finally, around three in the morning, David learned that "eventually" had arrived.  Three Clansmen came walking down the street and then stopped in front of the pub.  Each of them pulled out their wand.

As soon as David saw the spell leaving the wand of the one in the middle, he raised his own wand and chanted the hex he'd planned.  The man in the middle dropped to the ground, his feet having suddenly disappeared.  As the three watched in horror, the man's legs similarly melted away.  David had resorted to metamorphosis, and he'd had to practice this spell several times in order to make sure it would work.  He left the shadows and walked out to the three punks in the street.

"Apparently the message did not get around," David said darkly.  "Bridget and the Mystic Wolf are off limits."

"You don't give us orders, pig," the one boy, obviously from Earth, said.

David decked him, knocking him to the ground.  "I can, and will, do worse things than this if you cross me.  If you find the right healer, they'll be able to reverse the spell... if they can figure out what it was."  David had looked for an obscure morphing spell, to make that more difficult.  "Next time, my response won't be so benign."

"You call this benign, you motherfucker?" the guy lying on the ground with no legs screamed.

"You're still breathing, aren't you?  You're still basically human, aren't you?  Turning you into a toad isn't illegal in Dugerra.  You don't have what it takes to fuck with me, you stupid shit.  Right now, The Clan is an annoyance.  I have better things to do with my time.  Force me to focus my attention on you, and you will not like the results.  Pass the word: Bridget and The Mystic Wolf are under my protection.  Not as a Rimohr, not as the head of security at the school.  As a demighost who can fuck you up worse than anything you can imagine, without even breaking a sweat.  Got it?"

"Yeah, we got it," the third one said, speaking for the first time.

"Good."

David walked off into the night, leaving the two men to drag their buddy off to get help.

  David entered the Rimohr office just after ten.  He had been called down by Joe, who said that Agent Wilson needed to talk to him.  David was fairly certain what this was about, so he took his time arriving, and he chatted for a few minutes with Nancy when he signed in.

Finally he had no more excuses, and he walked back through the bullpen to Wilson's office, knocking on the door.

"Come in," the voice said.

David opened the door and stepped in.  "You wanted to see me?"

Wilson scowled at him, but didn't say anything.  Instead, he walked to the door and called for Garibaldi to join them.  David took up position in front of the desk, standing at attention as he figured he was supposed to for a dressing-down.

"I have a complaint here about you," Wilson said.  "Charles Faggioni says you threatened him, and then hit him."

"I did not hit him," David replied.

"The man has a broken nose and a crushed cheekbone," Wilson objected sharply.

David shrugged.  "I didn't hit him.  I merely faded at the right moment."

"Excuse me?"

"His buddy was trying to hit me.  I faded.  He missed."

"What the hell were you doing talking to them without a supervisor in the first place?" Wilson demanded.

"Explaining to him the consequences of attempting retribution on Bridget."

"So you did threaten him," Wilson said.

"Depends on how you look at it, I suppose," David said.

"Care to explain that?"

"To me, a threat would be what he did to Bridget:  Give me money, or I'm going to do bad things to you.  What I did was explain what I would do in response to something he did.  If he didn't do that thing, then I wouldn't do anything at all.  So, it's only a threat if he actually plans on doing the thing I told him not to do."

David heard Joe working mightly not to snicker behind him.

Wilson glared at David.  "What the fuck makes you think you can go around threatening people?  You're just a fucking intern, Stroud, you don't even have the stones yet to arrest him!"

"I wasn't there as a Rimohr, sir, and I made that clear to him from the beginning."

"You think that fucking matters?" Wilson shouted.  "He knows you are one!  We don't need this kind of crap.  YOU said that we needed to clean this kind of thing out of the department!"

"I never said that.  My comments concerning cleaning up the department had to do with officers pre-judging investigations.  The investigation, in this case, was over.  Everyone knows he did it, but we, as a group, fucked up and didn't get enough on him to make it stick."

"And so you're going to fix it, all by your lonesome.  Special Agent Stroud, Super-Rimohr!"

"Who else is going to protect Bridget?  You?" David asked, challenging the man.

"Listen, you little shit.  One word from me, and you are out of this program.  I've been getting an awful lot of attitude out of you lately, and I don't like it.  In this office, things run my way."

"My actions on the night in question were not done as part of the activities of this office, and so are not dictated by your method of operation, sir," David snapped back.

"You are dangerously close to getting fired, Stroud."

"Do it," David said, glaring at Wilson.  "Go ahead.  And I will make public the reason I was fired.  Let's see which one of us the public backs up.  You're telling me not to protect an innocent civilian from a known criminal enterprise."

Wilson stared at him for a long moment.  The hell of it was that he didn't even have the authority to fire David.  While he could fire any fully qualified officer under his command, if he had a cause, only the Academy brass could fire David, because he was an intern.  The other part was, David was right about public opinion.  If this became known, it would hurt the Rimohrs, not David.  David's actions were outside the scope of his job, but he was a demighost, and people just assumed that demighosts did whatever the fuck they wanted, anyway.  The people would see this as a demighost doing something positive, for a change.  Wilson was in a corner that he couldn't find a way out of.  He couldn't let David win this argument, but he really had nothing he could do to win the argument himself.

Finally, Wilson took a deep breath.  "You will forfeit your pay for the next thirty days.  I will place a reprimand in your file, and this complaint will be permanently logged.  You could be a good Rimohr, Stroud, but you keep letting your temper get in your way."

"Perhaps if a few more Rimohrs got angry at injustice, there'd be a little less of it in this world," David retorted.

Wilson stared at him angrily.  "Get the hell out of my office."

"Yes, SIR!" David snapped loudly, saluted, and then turned on his heel and left.

Wilson looked to Garibaldi.  "He's not going to make it."

Joe looked at Wilson.  "Think so?  You might want to learn a bit more about the Commissioner before you make that judgment."

"He's a loose cannon."

"There is nothing unrestrained about David's actions, Boss.  He's not a 'loose' cannon.  He's a very targeted cannon.  And God help the person he's aimed at."

Joe walked out of Wilson's office, closing the door behind him.  He found David waiting at his desk.

"Sorry to put you through that," David said to Joe.  Joe waved it off.

"Wilson's kind of old-school.  He thinks we all have to live, breathe, eat and dream the job.  He says we're on duty 24/7, whether we're in uniform or not.  Now, I want to know, did you really hit the guy, or not?"

"Nope.  Just let his buddy do it for me.  I knew that the big guy was going to attack me sooner or later.  I had Jailla, my familiar, let me know when he was about to strike.  I faded, and he hit an unintended target.  Faggioni is lucky for all that.  If Gulbort had hit him directly, he might not have lived through it."

"And you'd be okay with that?" Vivian asked from her desk next to Joe's.

"Some people, Vivian, the world is much better off without."

"So why don't you just kill him and take care of the problem?" one of the other Rimohrs, who wasn't very fond of David, asked.

"Because I don't kill people," David said simply, staring the man down.  The man knew about that, and turned away almost immediately.

David turned back to Joe.  "Have we heard anything back about that piece of paper?" David asked, referring to the scrap found in the last victim's hand.

"The FBI's trying to run it down for us.  They said they'd let us know."

David nodded.  "Anything more I need to do here?"

"Nope."

"In that case, I'll see you all later.  I have a school to protect and serve."

"Wilson's right, you know," Vivian said.  "He's not going to make it.  The commission at the Academy will never pass him."  Wilson had left the door to his office open, so that David's dressing down was somewhat public.

Joe snorted.  "David's probably going to be the Rimohr Commissioner one of these days.  Things are changing, Vivian.  Something's going on that they're not telling us about, but they are starting to advocate taking a harder line with people.  David's actions won't even faze the commission right now."

"What do you think's going on?"

"I don't know.  Trouble, whatever it is."

Vivian nodded and returned to her paperwork.

 David was, for once, in his dorm room when Joe came to get him.

"Holy crap," Joe said.  "I've never seen the upper level dorms.  This is nicer than my house!"

"I wouldn't go that far," David said, "but it is a nice place to live.  So, what's on your mind?  If this is a social call, you forgot to bring Zyla and Grace with you."

Joe smirked.  "Nope, we have work to do.  The FBI got back to us on that scrap of paper.  There's a place in Comstock, NY, called the Doin' Time Diner."

David nodded.  "You got the original with you?"

"No, but I've got a copy."

"Okay, let's get going, then."

The ride to the diner took them over three hours.  It was a boring drive through New England to reach a small, somewhat isolated community in New York state.  In fact, the village seemed to be little more than a container for the not one, but two state prisons found there.

David parked his truck in the lot of the Doin' Time Diner, and he and Joe got out.

"At least we know why they picked the name," David said.

Joe snorted.  "Couldn't have named it much else, could they?"

The two entered the diner and took a seat at a table.  It didn't take long for the waitress to come to them; the place was otherwise empty.

"What can I get you folks?"

They ordered drinks, but said they'd need a minute with the menu.

After the waitress left, David set the menu down on the table.

"You got that paper?" he asked Joe.  Joe handed it over.

David set the scrap down on the menu, comparing it to the wording on the menu itself.

"An exact match," Joe said quietly.

"Yep," David agreed.  "Now, we just have to figure out what he was doing here."

"Visiting an inmate, maybe?" Joe offered.

David nodded.

When the waitress came back, they placed their orders, and she went away again.

"Any idea how many inmates are in those prisons?" Joe asked.

David pulled out his cellphone.  He kept it in his truck most of the time, but always remembered to put it in his pocket when he got in.  He searched the internet for information.

"From the looks of it, we're talking about twenty-six or twenty-seven hundred inmates between the two prisons."

"That's a lot of visitors to look at."

"But, again, how many will be wizards?"

"No telling."

When the waitress brought their food back, David said, "Excuse me, Miss, can I ask you a question?"

"What's on your mind?" she replied.

"We're looking for a guy who's been coming through here the last nine or ten months.  Probably took a menu with him.  He'd have been in here pretty regularly either Saturday or Sunday."

"Hon, that's when this place does all its business.  Washington's visitation only happens on weekends, and Great Meadows also allows visits on weekends.  We've got to have had a couple hundred guys in here in that time, and I wouldn't know them from Adam.  You cops?"

"Something like that," David replied.  "Thanks, anyway."

"No problem," the waitress said, and went back to doing the crossword puzzle in the morning paper.

"Well, shit," David said.  "I guess we have to go talk to the prisons now."

"That's a problem," Joe said.

"Oh?"

"While all law enforcement officers are informed about Rimohrs, prison officials wouldn't be.  We almost never have to interact with such people.  That means that we can't just walk in there and get what we want.  We're going to have to go through channels."

"Double-shit," David replied.

Joe smirked.

David picked up his cellphone and dialed.

"Who you calling?" Joe asked.

David didn't get a chance to answer Joe before the person on the phone answered.  Joe got his answer when David spoke, anyway.  "Hello, may I speak with Agent Deline, please?  This is David Stroud.  Yes, I'll hold."

David took a bite of his lunch while he waited on the line.  He had to swallow abruptly when Agent Deline answered.

"Agent Deline, David Stroud...  Well, sir, I need you to get us some information, if you can...  We need to get the visitation records for two New York state prisons...  Washington and Great Meadows, both here in Comstock...  Could you call them now, sir?...  Yes...  Okay, I'll be waiting."

David set down his phone, and turned to Joe.  "He's going to call the prisons, to see if they'll get together the information we need."

"Good."

The two ate lunch in silence until David's phone rang again.  David was disappointed that Joe wouldn't get the joke: David's ringtone was the Ghostbusters theme song.

"Hello?... Yes, sir...  Dammit.  Any idea how long that will take?...  Sir, this is important.  This could point us directly to the killer...  Yes, sir.  I understand.  Well, please do your best...  Yes, sir.  We'll be heading back now...  You, too."

David tossed his phone on the table and scowled.

"What's wrong?" Joe asked.

"The damn prisons will not release the visitation records without a warrant.  Deline said he'd go down and file for one, but the likelihood is it might be a couple days, at least, before the warrant is issued.  And, dammit, I'm going to be kind of out of things for the next two or three days."

"How come?"

"I have to interview replacements for Seth Tupper.  He's resigning at the end of next week.  Can you follow up with Deline, make sure he pushes that warrant through?"

"Yeah, I'll keep on it."

"Good."

"You want to head back to Gorumshead now?"

"Not directly.  Let's follow the route our killer must have.  Let's go from here to Albany, and Albany to Springfield.  Maybe stop in at some gas stations or other small businesses, see if anyone saw him."

"This would work better with a picture," Joe said.  "At least a description..."

"It'd work better with a name and address, too," David said snarkily.  "We've got what we've got."

"True enough.  Let's get going."

Ultimately, they had found nothing on their trip.  David had stopped in Bolmont to drop Joe off at home and have dinner with the family.

For the next three days, he had been stuck interviewing a couple dozen people for the position of office manager.  He'd asked Tanya to sit in on as many as she could, but she was still working on Rose's rape case, so she had to deal with that.

Each day, David had contacted Joe, to make sure that he'd contacted Agent Deline concerning the warrant.  On Thursday, the warrant was finally issued, but there was the matter of actually obtaining the information from the prisons.  Joe said that would take a day.

When Friday's work day came to a close, however, they had no records waiting for them.  David growled, but tried to shrug it off.  He had a date, and he didn't want to be all pissed off while he was with Lydia.

David took Lydia to dinner at the Slyther Inn, and then took her to see an ice skating performance at the stadium in town.  The snow had been magically packed down and frozen into a smooth sheet of ice for the show.

The two enjoyed the show, despite their faces growing quite cold from the weather.  They had cuddled close to keep warm, though both were wearing ComfortCloak coats, so it was hardly necessary.

Once the show was over, David escorted Lydia back to his room, where they spent the next few hours in much warmer pursuits.  When they had finished, they were lying on the bed together, cuddled beneath the covers.

"David," Lydia started quietly, "what are you looking for, between us?"

"What do you mean?"

"What kind of relationship?"

David sighed.  "Anymore, I take what I can get from the girls I meet.  Why?"

"Well, it's just that I've always been told not to get too involved with another immortal.  They say it never ends well."

David sighed more deeply this time.  "So you want us to stop seeing each other?"

"Oh, hell no," Lydia said, pushing herself closer to him.  "I like you, and I love having sex with you.  I just don't think we should be exclusive to each other."

"Ah.  So, you've met another guy?"

Lydia blushed.  "No, I haven't been looking.  But I know that you have other women in your life already."

"None that I've been active with since we started dating," he said.

Lydia nodded.  "Which means you do want something more... permanent?"

"Well, it'd be nice if someone actually wanted to be my partner, yes..."

Lydia frowned.  "I'm sorry.  I just... like I said, I've been told it never works out.  Vampires don't marry other vampires.  Seems that, after about two or three hundred years in close contact, people generally would prefer to kill the other than be in their presence anymore.  It makes for ugly breakups."

David nodded in understanding.

"And, since I won't chance it, I don't want to prevent you from looking for Miss Right.  On the other hand, while you're still available, I don't want to miss out on what you have to offer, either."

"Was that a compliment?" David asked.

"...After a fashion," Lydia replied, blushing.  "Are you mad?"

"No.  I've had this conversation so many times now that I almost expect it."

"I'm sorry about that.  I guess it's one of the problems with being immortal.  We're probably both going to hear some variation of this speech a lot in our lives."

"I suppose.  Doesn't mean I enjoy it."

Lydia kissed him softly, and he responded in kind.  The two kissed and cuddled for a long time.

"Mind if I sleep here tonight?" Lydia asked at a break in their necking.

"Oh, sure.  First you tell me you don't want me, then you ask to sleep in my bed?"  His tone indicated he was teasing her, rather than upset.

"No, I said I didn't want your soul," she said.  "I said nothing about not wanting your body..."  With that, she wiggled her hips against him.

David chuckled at that.  He kissed her again and then said, "I suppose you can sleep here... this time,"

"Goody," she replied.  She gave him a deep, passionate kiss, then rolled over, scooting her butt back against him and wiggling her ass.

"Keep doing that, however," David said, "and you won't be getting any sleep."

Lydia giggled, then settled into position.  David put his arm over her, rested his hand gently against her breast, pulling her back against him tightly, and then he, too, settled.  It didn't take long before they were both asleep.

David was working on putting the final touches on the long-sought-after (at least by him) mood cube when there was a knock at the door.  He grumbled slightly, but put down the cube and went to find out who it was.

"Hey, Flo," David said.  "Come on in.  You could have just come in, you know."

"I know, but it's kind of rude, isn't it?  You know, unless you were asleep or something."

David acknowledged the point.  "So what can I do for you today?" he asked.  "You want some juice or something?"

"No thanks."  She sat down on the sofa when he invited her to.  "I just wanted to let you know that I won't be staying with you for Yuletide this year."

"Oh?  Get a better offer?" he asked with a grin.

Flo giggled.  "No, not really.  I figured I'd spend this year with my family.  Since I'll be leaving school after this year, and will probably get too involved in my own stuff to take the time to go see them, I figured I should take this one last chance to spend Yule with them."

"That makes sense.  You're not going to be here next year?"

"No.  I'll have the licenses I need to do what I want at the end of the year."

"What is it you're after?" he asked.

"Well, I'm not sure what I want to do as a job, but I want to one day be on the King's Council, so I need my A1 license."

"A1?"

"Shorthand for this year's licensure.  Government Administration, Level 1?"

"Oh, right.  So, next year's would be called A2?"

"Yeppers!" she said with a grin.

"Well, that's good.  At least you have a plan."

"Don't you, by now?  I thought you were going to be a Rimohr."

"Well, that's what I'm working toward, but so far, the job is very frustrating."

"Oh.  I'm sorry."

David shrugged.  "I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually."

"I hope you weren't planning anything special for Yule this year," Flo said, frowning.

"Nope.  Probably be a small Yule for us.  With you not being there, it's going to be just me and Olissa.  Gwen will be with Jess, and I don't have any other friends left at the school."

"Are you going to have another Christmas Party?"

"I don't know.  I feel kind of out of sorts this year, you know?  I'm not really a student, I'm not really a Rimohr, I'm part of the staff, but I never really feel like it...  It's very hard for me to say this, but I don't really feel like I belong anymore."

Flo frowned.  "Then you really should have a party, to reconnect with the teachers.  You've always been so close to them."

"Maybe," David allowed.  "Speaking of connecting with people," David said, reaching out and taking Flo's hand, "if you're not going to be around for Yule, and we might not see each other this week, with final DS evaluations and such... care to do a little connecting of our own?"

Flo smiled widely, and the two were soon on their way to the bedroom.

David was a bit unsure about why he was being called down to the Rimohr office this time.  He hadn't done anything for anyone to complain about.  When he walked in and signed in with Nancy, he asked her if she knew what was up.

"They don't tell me anything, David.  You know that."

David smiled at her and then headed back to the bullpen.  He'd been told to report to Joe, not Agent Wilson, so he did.

"What's up?" he asked Joe.

Joe thumped a pile of paper on his desk.  "Here are the visitation records from the two prisons for the last year."

"Holy crap."

"They got hold of these late Friday, but it was too close to the end of the day, so they waited until this morning to send them over to us."

David frowned.  "Lazy bastards."

"Oh, your language is going to get much worse than that," Joe told him.

David's look darkened.  "Why?"

"Because another body was found this morning."

"Goddammit!" David said.  "If we'd had these on Friday, we might have had the fucker in custody!"

"Exactly.  Let's go check out the body."

"In Winding River again?" David asked.

"Of course," Joe confirmed.  "Pretty close to some of the other drop sites."

"Agent Deline had best be glad he's on the other side of a travel gate.  If he was here now I'd bust his fucking nose."

"He couldn't have known, David," Joe tried.

"Couldn't have known what?  That this guy kills on the weekend?  He'd damned well better have figured out at least that much!"

Joe knew there wasn't anything he could say to that comment, so he simply led David out to the glidecar.  They got in, but the jolt as David started the car off told Joe just how pissed off he was.

The ninth victim looked very much like the other eight, and her body was in the same condition.  David made sure to log the location with his measuring device, and plot it on the map he was keeping for such purposes.  He'd had to conjure that map from his office, which had given him a bit of a headache, but he'd done it anyway.

"It just looks like he's making a smaller circle inside the bigger one," Joe said.

"I don't know," David said.  "I'm not sure these line up on a circle properly."  After staring at it a while longer, he rolled it up and put it in his coat.  "Anyway, nothing more we can do here.  I guess we head back to the office and start looking at those records."

"Fun," Joe said.

"Yeah."

"Good evening, Professor," David said.

Prof. Rutherford looked up from her papers.  "Good evening, David!  What can I do for you?"

"I figured we could do my semester evaluation for my directed study, if you have a few moments."

Prof. Rutherford quickly set aside the pile of papers.  "Anything to stop grading first-year exams for a while."

David chuckled.

"So.  The last thing I saw was your little water marble, and that water bullet, which still amazes me.  What have you done since then?"

"I have two more things to show you.  You want me to do the quick one first, or the one that will take me a while?"

Prof. Rutherford waved her hand.  "Whichever you'd prefer."

David nodded.  He stepped over to the tank of water, and suddenly the water rose up into a sheet of water, six feet tall and the length of the tank.

"Well done," Prof. Rutherford said, "But not much of a challenge for someone who can make dancing columns to music."

David smirked at that, then he reached into his coat.  While keeping his attention focused on the water, he pulled out his sword from his coat pocket.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

David gripped his sword in both hands and swung with all his might at the wall of water.

The sword bounced off.

Some minor spray of water came off the wall, but it was otherwise unchanged.

"My god," Prof. Rutherford said.  "Just exactly how impenetrable is this?"

"I think that would depend on the wizard doing it.  I haven't been able to put anything through it."

"Does it repel spells?"

"If they have a physical form," he confirmed.

Prof. Rutherford formed a large energy ball and threw it as fast as she could at the wall of water.  It contacted, skidded along the surface a short way, and then bounced back at her.  She dissolved the ball quickly, before anything bad happened.

"Why did it stick to the surface for a while?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," David said.  "I think it has to do with the two magical fields interacting."

Prof. Rutherford nodded.  "Okay, you can relax your wall."

"Shields down," David said with a grin.  The wall of water collapsed instantly back into the tank, sloshing somewhat, but not making a mess.

"How..." Prof. Rutherford started, a bit stunned.

"This was just a progression from the water marble.  All I've done is to tighten the surface tension even further.  It's now to the point where the water is acting completely like a solid.  You'll remember that you could poke your finger into the water marble, and it would deform.  If you tried to poke your finger into that wall, your finger would just stop, as if you were trying to poke it into concrete."

"Can you imagine how helpful this would be to, say protect a castle from attack?"

"You'd need a few really good wizards.  I'm not sure how long I could keep that shield up."

"But you were able to raise it in a very short moment.  You could probably raise it and drop it as you needed it, rather than keeping it up for the entire battle."

"It's a thought," David agreed.

"Now, you said you had something else?  I'll assume that the something else is what takes a while."

"Yes," David confirmed.  He pulled a chair over to the water tank and sat down.

"This also uses the water marble technique," David told her.

Prof. Rutherford nodded for him to continue.

David stared at the tank, then closed his eyes for a moment.  He visualized what he wanted, and then opened his eyes again, keeping the image focused as he reached his hand out toward the water.  A small column of water lifted slowly from the surface until it was at eye level.  David then began to shape the top of the column, pushing and pulling the water to exactly where he wanted it, a head and shoulders slowly emerging from the undefined water column.

Slowly, the head took on features: a nose, eyes, a mouth, ears.  As Prof. Rutherford watched, finer and finer touches were added.  She kept quiet as David worked, amazed that he could continue to add more and more detail.

Finally, after about ten minutes, David sat back, still staring at his water sculpture.

Prof. Rutherford approached, carefully reaching out.  She poked her finger into the temple of the water-head, and her finger easily sank in.  When she pulled her finger out, there was no sign that the bust had been disturbed.

She looked closely, examining the details.  Up close, it was even more impressive.  The bust had eyelashes of water.  There were individual loose strands of hair, though most of the hair was, of course, part of a watery mass.

"Sam would be impressed at the likeness," Prof. Rutherford told him.

David would have blushed, if he could.  "In order to demonstrate how detailed I could get, I had to choose a face I know in that kind of detail."

Prof. Rutherford nodded.  "Now, could you have done this with the same density as the wall?  Could you make this impenetrable?"

"I can do so after I've completed it, but it's too hard to move around the water when it's that densely packed."

"Right.  So, you would have to shape it, and then 'solidify' it."

"Yeah.  I did do that as I was practicing.  But, I mean, this really is frivolous.  There's not much I can do with this particular skill."

"Not true," Prof. Rutherford said.

"Oh?"

"Imagine this.  Let's say you make the bust you've got there and you solidify it with the other technique.  I could then make a mold of your water sculpture.  Once the mold had hardened, you could simply let go of your spell, the water would drain out, and I'd have a perfect mold of your sculpture that I could use to make replicas."

David nodded.  "Yeah, I guess you could.  Not sure who'd want a replica of a water sculpture, though."

Prof. Rutherford shrugged.  "I'm just saying, it could have uses.  David, I'd like you to start writing down the methods for the techniques you've learned during directed study.  Some of them aren't very widely known, if at all, and it would be a great help to the elemandy community to add your knowledge to the whole."

"Okay, sure.  I'll write it up over the break."

"Good, thank you.  I'm sure I don't even need to say this, but you're progressing just fine with your directed study.  Do you plan to move on next semester?"

"Yeah.  Though I'm very unsure of just what more there is to learn about aeromandy."

"There isn't a lot.  We covered most of it in class.  But there are a few things.  Do you need a reading list?"

"If you have suggestions, I'm all for them."

Prof. Rutherford pulled out her notebook and copied the appropriate titles down for him.  "These will cover what you don't already know."

David tucked the list in a pocket.  "Okay, great.  I guess I'll see you next semester, Professor."

"What, no Christmas Party this year?" she asked.

"I haven't decided yet.  If I do have one, you will, of course, be invited."

Prof. Rutherford smiled.  "As long as you have cookies for Lyssa.  Otherwise, you have to deal with her."

"Oh, no, there'll be cookies.  I'm not about to get on her bad side!"

Prof. Rutherford chuckled.  "Have a good Yule, David."

 

  David leaned back and stretched, lifting his arms over his head and arching his back.  He'd been at his desk, working through the prison visitation records all morning, and he needed a break.  He got up and moved around the office, just trying to work out the kinks.

As usually happened when David wasn't already focused on another task, he wound up standing in front of his case board, staring at the photos of the dead women, the map he'd worked out of their drop locations, and the scrap of paper.  The scrap was no longer important: they'd figured out what it meant, or so they thought.  The victim could not have met the killer at that diner: so far as they knew, she had never been to Comstock.  They were going on the assumption that the killer had taken a menu from the diner, and the victim had come across it and torn off the corner.  In any case, it had led them to Comstock.

David's attention came back to the map.  He hadn't yet figured out the pattern the killer was using.  He'd already ruled out Garibaldi's idea of a circle within a circle: the three "inner" bodies didn't lie on the same circle.  At least, not if it was centered on the same spot as the outer circle.

Looking closer, David thought that he could draw a line joining two of the outer locations that would then pass through one of the inner locations.

Curious now, David took down his map, took out a blank piece of parchment, and used a spell to make a copy of the map.  He returned the original to his board, but then sat down with an InkyQuill and a ruler with the copy.

David joined the two outer points.  Sure enough, one of the inner points lay exactly on that line.  It didn't take long to notice that he could do the same with other pairs of outer dots.  David started to connect each pair of outer dots that would go through one of the three inner dots.

Once David had finished doing that, the pattern was literally staring him in the face.  David picked up his mirror and dialed Joe.

"Yeah, David, what's up?"

"Joe, you got your copy of my map handy?"

"Yeah, it's right here."

"Got a ruler?"

"Uh..."

"Or a straightedge.  Something to draw a straight line with."

"Oh, sure."

"Okay.  Time to play connect the dots.  Take the ruler and connect any two dots on the outside circle that will pass through one of the three inner dots."

"I'll have to set down the mirror..."

"I'll wait," David said.  He hoped that he'd not screwed up, and that Joe would get the same result.  He couldn't see how he wouldn't, but every time he thought he had a handle on this case, something jumped sideways.

In a minute, Joe picked the mirror back up.  "Son of a bitch.  It's a hexagram."

David nodded.  Staring up from the paper was the by-now-familiar unicursal hexagram that he'd seen all over the place since coming to Dugerra.

"You think he might be trying to perform some kind of enchantment or curse?" David asked Joe.

"Hell if I know.  Really, really slow way to go about it if he is.  Also means we've got... what, three more tries to catch him?"

"Four.  I'd assume that the central crossing point is the key to whatever magic he might be trying to do.  That victim may have to be someone really specific."

"Or maybe that's where he's supposed to stand to work the spell," Joe offered.

David frowned.  "Could be.  Personally, I don't want to give this fucker three more victims.  He's already killed nine too many."

"Amen to that.  Any luck on those visitation lists?"

"Still working through them.  I'm about halfway done.  I've got a list of two hundred or so people who have visited on each of the murder nights so far.  I'm only up to the fourth murder, though, so still eliminating folks."

"Right.  Keep at it."

"Obviously.  I'll let you get back to saving the world from paperwork now."

Joe chuckled at him.  "Shut up and go away," he said with a grin.

David fogged off, stared at the map, and then took it and tacked it up beside the original on the wall.

"We've got your ass now, you motherfucker."

  "Well, good evening, David," Prof. Zoroaster said.  "You're here for your semester evaluation?"

"Yes, sir.  I can come back, if you're busy."  Sitting in the chair in front of the professor's desk was another man, who looked rather official.

"No, that's all right.  This is Peter Thornton.  He's with the Ministry of Defense, but we'll get to why he's here in a moment.  What have you cooked up to show me?"

David looked at Mr. Thornton closely, but then shook off his unease and returned his attention to the professor.  Pulling it from his pocket, he set the mood cube on the professor's desk.

"It only took me forever, but I think I finally managed a fully functional mood cube."

"Really?  Let's see about that," the professor said.  He picked it up, and it changed color to reflect his current state of mind.  "Mr. Thornton, if you would?"

Thornton grabbed the cube, watching it shift.  David took note of the colors.  Prof. Zoroaster was curious.  Thornton was nervous.  Prof. Zoroaster took the cube back, and set it on an empty spot on his work table.  He then cast a lengthy spell.  It was the longest charm David had ever heard.

A colored field came up and surrounded the cube.  The cube's color shifted to match the color of the field.  Slowly, the field altered its hue.  The cube kept up, color for color, until finally the outer field dissipated.

"Perfect match.  The spell I used mimics emotional states," he explained.  "It also shows us the color the cube should be, so that we can tell whether or not the cube is showing us the truth."

"How do you know for sure the cube isn't just mimicking the color state of the field?" Thornton asked.

"Because the cube has no eyes to see that color.  The cube sees only emotion."

Thornton nodded.  Prof. Zoroaster handed it back to David.  "Great work.  Is this all you've been working on all semester?"

"Other than that measuring device I showed you."

"Oh, right.  It took you all this time to get this right?"

"Yeah.  I had a really hard time filtering out the stronger emotions.  I'm not sure why.  I read every book I could find on it, but it didn't click until a couple weeks ago.  Then I had to actually emplace the filters.  I goofed it up twice, which is what took me until just a few days ago to finally get this working."

"Well, it's splendid.  How soon do you plan to redecorate your living room?"

"That's my next project," David confirmed with a smile.

Prof. Zoroaster nodded, then paused.  To David, it was clear there was a tension in the air.  Finally, the professor spoke.

"David, Mr. Thornton is actually here to see you."

"Oh?"  David turned to the man.  "What can I do for you?"

"I'm a member of the Intelligence division of the Ministry of Defense.  You're well aware of the trouble that's coming."

"Yes.  What do you need from me?"

"We want you to do a seeing, to let us know of any dangers that might be lurking in the near future."

"Why me?  Surely you've got certified seers working for the division."

"We do.  But you have to understand, Mr. Stroud, that seers have affinities."

"What do you mean, affinities?"

"There are certain things, David," Prof. Zoroaster explained, "that a seer will always be able to see more clearly than any other topic.  It could be his friends or family, or perhaps his business... in any case, there are always some things that it will be easier for you to divine than others.  And you will be better at divining them than other seers will."

"Okay, that makes sense to me, but I still don't see what it has to do with me."

"One of your affinities, David, is Woodward Academy.  You've always been able to divine the events affecting this school more easily than anything other than those things affecting your friends."

Mr. Thornton continued, "Because the coming problem will affect northern Callamandia first, we want to see if you can see any immediate problem surrounding the school."

"Well, I'll be happy to do a seeing for you, but I have to tell you I have sensed a growing discomfort for a while now."

Mr. Thornton nodded.  "Still, we're hoping for something more specific than the general unease being felt by the diviners in the area."

David nodded.  He waved his hand, and his crystal ball, which was always in his Conjuring Room, appeared on Prof. Zoroaster's desk.  David centered his thoughts and then focused his mind on the image forming within the orb.

David watched, his dismay growing at what he saw.  Finally he sat back.

"Were you able to see anything?" Mr. Thornton asked immediately.  Prof. Zoroaster waved him off.  He could tell David was either fatigued or distressed.  They needed to wait for him to gather himself.

Finally David took a deep breath.  "I was able to see three different things," he confirmed.  "I believe they represent three different times into the future.  The first was fuzzy, so probably a year or more from now.  The second was extremely fuzzy, so out to my limit of viewing... just a little over two years.  The third, I had no image for at all.  It was merely a sensation."

"I understand," Mr. Thornton said.  "What was your first vision?"

"Things are tense next year, but I sensed no overt threat to the school.  Security seemed a little tighter here, but not in a definable way.  The school seemed largely the same as normal, students studying in class, goofing off on the terrace, general academy life, but with an undertone of fear."

Thornton nodded.  "And the second image?"

"People were scared.  Academy attendance was down.  The grounds seemed emptier than normal.  The look on people's faces was one of concern.  There seemed not to be much fun in the atmosphere."

"And your final vision?  The sensation?"

David replied simply, "Catastrophe."

Mr. Thornton looked at Prof. Zoroaster with a deep, serious frown.

"I wouldn't bet against him," the professor replied to Thornton's unspoken question.  "Where this school is concerned, his visions are more focused even than my own."

"I will have to inform the king," Thornton said.

David was walking to lunch with Olissa when his mirror buzzed.  He took it out, to see Seth staring back at him.

"Hey, Seth.  Aren't you supposed to be packing or something?"

"My last day here in the office," he told him.  "And you have something here that you need to handle."

"Okay, on my way."  He fogged off and looked at Olissa.  "I guess you'll have to eat by yourself."

Olissa nodded.  David gave her a kiss, then headed off for the security office.

David arrived to find a teacher and a student standing outside his office.

"What's the deal?" he asked Seth.

"The student is accusing the professor of assault."

David nodded.  "Good morning, Prof. Silverfeld."

"Good morning, Chief Stroud."

"You are?" David asked the student.

"Roma Hilton," the girl replied.  The girl had on way too much makeup, and though her clothes obeyed the dress code, she had somehow managed to make the Woodward uniform look trashy.  David eyed her strongly.

"What year are you?" David asked.

"First.  What difference does that make?"

"A great deal of difference, actually.  It means that you have no reputation to support your claim yet.  Do you actually have any evidence to back up your assault charge?  Did you go to the infirmary?"

"What for?" she replied snidely.

"Well, if you'd been hit, you would probably have been injured..."

"He just shoved me around."

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"Well, obviously Prof. Silverfeld doesn't make a habit of shoving students, or we would have heard about it by now.  So, why did he shove you?"

"How the fuck should I know?  I think he wants to fuck me."

"Uh-huh," David replied.  "So, just, out of the blue, he shoved you."

"I was getting up out of my chair to leave class, and he came up behind me and he shoved me.  What's so fucking hard to understand about that, you stupid cop?"

"And why did you wait until today to report it?"

"It just happened!"

"Today is Saturday, Miss Hilton.  There are no classes on Saturday."

"Okay, fine.  I waited because I hadn't decided whether to report him for it or not."

"And... after seeing your grade, you decided to report him?" David guessed.

"My grade had nothing to do with it!" the student snarled.

"Then why did you decide to report him?"

"Because he's a prick who shouldn't be shoving people."

"Uh-huh.  Prof. Silverfeld, would you care to respond to any of the accusations made by Miss Hilton?"

"Other than to categorically deny them?  No.  Miss Hilton has been doing poorly in my class.  A few days ago, she approached me, and offered sex, if I would improve her grade.  I refused to do so.  I'm assuming that's why we're here now."

"You lying sack of shit!" Hilton yelled.  She lunged at the professor, but David put one hand on her chest and shoved her backward hard enough that she nearly fell.

"Attacking a professor's a good way to get yourself expelled.  Was anyone with you when Prof. Silverfeld allegedly shoved you?"

"No.  I was the last one to leave."

"So you haven't got a single shred of evidence to back up your story."

"I'm telling the truth!"

David stared at her doubtfully, then took a breath.  "Well, there is one way to prove that.  Are you willing to submit to a truth potion?"

"It's illegal for you to make me do that!"

"No it's not.  It would be illegal for the Rimohrs to have you do it.  I'm not acting as a Rimohr, I'm acting as head of security.  I cannot compel you to use the potion.  You are free to submit willingly, however."

"Well, I won't."

"Fine.  Professor?"

"Whatever you like, Chief Stroud.  I'd like to get this matter cleared up."

David turned back to Hilton.  "Very well.  We'll mix up a truth potion, and question Prof. Silverfeld under its effects.  That is, unless you have any additional information, Miss Hilton?  Please be aware that malicious witnessing is an imprisonable offense."

The student looked very nervous.  "Uh... look, let's just drop the whole damned thing, then, okay?"

"No, I don't think I can do that," David said.

"I won't charge him," Hilton said.  "Without a charge, you have nothing to pursue!"

"Except you obviously lying to attempt to get a professor in trouble.  That is a disciplinary offense.  You, young lady, will be going before the Board of Discipline on Monday.  Seth, keep an eye on her while I get a couple of the on-duty officers to escort her to detention.  Professor, thank you for your time.  We'll probably need you to show up on Monday."

"No worries, David."

"I have to go home!  My parents are coming to get me today!" Hilton screamed.

"Should have thought of that before lying to me," David said coldly, then walked out of the room.

 "How come I couldn't come over last night?" Gwen asked.  She and David were walking through the back area of his property in Bolmont.  It was growing dark already, but Gwen had asked to be out there.

"We were having a party up at the school.  A send-off for Seth.  He's moving to Cormatsen to be a security guard at the Royal Archive there."

"Wow.  Major step down, isn't it?"

David shrugged.  "He's unlikely to have to hex anybody there, and that's what he wants right now."

Gwen nodded.  They walked along quietly for a few moments before David asked, "So, what's on your mind?"

"I was wondering if I had upset you guys by leaving last year."

"No, of course not.  Why would you ask that?"

"Well, though we eat together at meals pretty often, we don't seem to get together like we used to.  I haven't seen you outside of the cafeteria in a couple weeks before today."

David nodded.  "It's not you, Gwen.  I don't see any of my friends as much as I'd like anymore.  Hell, that's why Penny's staying here with us through Yule: so I can actually spend some time with her.

"A lot of it is the change in learning style, but mostly it's because I'm so goddamned busy it's unreal.  When I'm not studying, I'm doing potions work.  When I'm not doing potions work, I'm doing security work.  When I'm not doing security work, I'm doing Rimohr work.  When I'm not doing Rimohr work.... I'm sleeping.  I don't really have much of a life of my own right now."

"Maybe you need to back away from some things," she offered.

David nodded.  "Believe me, I'm considering all my options these days."

"Okay, well, so long as you and Olissa aren't mad at me."

David put his arm around her shoulders.  "Nope."

"Good.  Things are strained enough at home because I've been gone.  I didn't need things to be just as bad at school."

"Jess is upset?"

"Yes.  Not in the mad-at-me kind of way; she still supports what I'm doing.  But she gets lonely.  We don't have nearly enough time together.  I've been missing weekends here and there because I have too much schoolwork to do, and that frustrates both of us.  It's just... not great, you know?"

David nodded.  "Well, it's only one more semester."

"Yeah.  Then I have to see if I can get together the money to start my own business."

David kept his peace about that.

They continued to walk slowly through the snow.  David's property was at the edge of undeveloped forest, so his property had many trees at its edge.  As it had grown darker, it was impossible for them to see whether anything was moving in the forest.

To their peril, something was.  As they passed by a thicker stand of trees, a shadow jumped out of the woods, pushing David aside and attacking Gwen.  It knocked her to the ground and then pounced on top of her.

David rolled to his side, shot out his hand, and blasted the shadow with a huge energy ball.  The attacker went rolling sideways, yelping in pain.

Yelping? David thought to himself.

David rose to his feet, and then pulled Gwen up, telling her to stay behind him.  As the attacker rose, David heard it growl.  Knowing what came next, David readied for the lunge.  As the creature pounced, David blasted it with a bolt of lightning from his wand.  In the flicker of the spell, they clearly saw what was attacking them.

It was a werewolf.

Seeing that, David recast the spell, stronger.  The werewolf was thrown back toward the trees, its body twitching as it rose.  Now the creature was snarling viciously.

"Don't make me kill you," David warned.  He put away his wand and drew his sword.  Being enmagicked, David could use his sword for the same spells as his wand now, and the sword was far more intimidating in appearance.

The werewolf approached more slowly, and David raised his sword, ready to strike if he had to.  The werewolf tried to circle around David to get to Gwen, but David made sure to keep himself between her and the attacker.  Finally the werewolf grew impatient and lunged again.

David struck with his sword, while at the same time chanting a spell.  His blade sliced across the werewolf's arm, blood oozing from the wound.  The spell caused the wound to burn, causing further damage to the flesh.  The werewolf stumbled back now, whining in pain.  It reached down with its other hand and grabbed a handful of snow, packing it against the wound to stop the burning.  This did not work, but it felt slightly better, so the werewolf kept it there.

Trying to snarl at them, but wincing in pain, the werewolf backed away until he was near the edge of the trees, then ran off into the forest.

David didn't lower his sword for a long while.  Finally, he was fairly certain the werewolf wasn't coming back, and he returned his sword to its pocket within his coat.

Turning to Gwen, he asked, "You okay?"

She was shaky, but nodded.  "He just kind of knocked the wind out of me when he knocked me down."

"Let's get back to the house.  We need to report this to someone."

As they walked, David was considering.  "That's three."

"Three?  Three what?" Gwen asked.

"This is the third time this year one of my friends has been put in danger around me."

"What do you mean?"

"This summer, Flo contracted a very serious illness while she was staying at my house.  In September, I think it was, Lydia - she's a first-year, but a friend of mine - was trapped inside a Ninkirbendo hex and nearly floated away off campus.  Now you're attacked by a werewolf."

"C'mon, he could have been just attacking randomly."

"No, he couldn't.  He pushed me out of the way to get to you.  He pushed me hard enough to knock me down, but he didn't go after me.  He turned his attention to you immediately.  I wasn't a target, I was merely in his way.  Likewise, as I was fighting him, he was continually trying to find a way past me to you."

"Why would it want to attack me?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know.  Then again, I never figured out why anyone would hex Lydia, either.  And I don't believe Flo's illness was natural, either.  There was a very weird outbreak of a whole bunch of different diseases at the time.  That just doesn't strike me as a natural occurrence."

"Didn't anyone look into it?"

"Yeah, we did.  But we never found anything."

"Oh."

"Anyway, you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah."

"Good.  Let's get inside.  And don't go walking in my backyard at night anymore."

Gwen nodded seriously.

"I'm sorry to have made you bring Dean Lengel out of her little box during Yule, Emile," David told her.  They had just finished up dealing with Roma Hilton, who had been summarily expelled for her behavior.

"I hear you've been spreading bad news all over the place the last few days," she said quietly.

"Prof. Zoroaster told you?"

"Yes.  And I heard about the werewolf incident.  Is Miss Hasterscant all right?"

"She's fine.  He didn't do more than knock her down before I intervened."

"They are certainly becoming bolder," Emile said.

"I'm not entirely sure this one wasn't hired to attack Gwen."

"Oh?"

"Well, call me paranoid.  Ever since my time with Cherise, when the people around me start getting into trouble one after another, I take notice.  Gwen makes the third person close to me that has had ill befall them since this summer."

"Who were the others?"

David explained things to her, and she nodded.

"Could just be coincidence, though," she told him.  "Have you considered divining the futures of your friends?"

"I've done so.  I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary.  If someone's causing trouble, they're hiding their tracks while they do it."

"All I can say is to keep your eyes open," Emile said.  "Which I'm sure you're already doing."

"You know it," he replied.  She smiled at him.

"Well, I have to get back to preparing for Yuletide.  Are you celebrating this year?"

"In a minor way.  It's just me, Olissa, and Penny down at the house, and Penny doesn't really celebrate, so..."

Emile nodded.  "You're welcome to join me and the other teachers."

"Thank you, but that would leave Olissa completely alone, and I wouldn't do that to her."

"Of course.  Well, try to have a happy Yule, anyway."

"Thanks."

When David returned to the house, he filled Olissa in on what had happened with the student, but then the two spent their time decorating the manor.

After lunch, David and Olissa went up to the second floor lounge.

He looked at Olissa.  "Do you actually want to go through the Remembrance Rite?"

"Not really."

"Okay, then we'll skip it this year."

"What are we going to do with our time, instead?" Olissa asked.

"Well... we're supposed to be remembering the year past, right?"

"Yeah."

"So why don't we just sit and talk about it?"

"Okay, that sounds like a nicer plan, anyway.  I've never been thrilled with the Remembrance Rite.  Maybe because a lot of my years haven't been the greatest."

David frowned at that, and then sat down on the couch next to her.

"Well, let's start with last Yule, and we'll just talk about the stuff we want or need to talk about."

"Sounds good."

They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and reminiscing about the year that had gone before them.  They had steered clear of any discussion of truly unpleasant things, such as the battle with The Clan, and had focused more on their interactions with their friends, and with each other.

David understood the purpose of the Remembrance Rite, but he had to agree with Olissa: this was a much more pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

 With the exception of the Day of Redemption, which David spent almost entirely with Penny, David and Olissa celebrated their Yule together.  It was a cozy situation, with just the two of them.  David had, of course, sent gifts to his teacher friends, and to the Garibaldis - especially Grace - and they had all sent him gifts, as well.  It was a pleasant week, which David felt only slightly guilty about taking completely off from both jobs.  He'd left Tanya in charge of security at the school, since she had only her parents, and they didn't do much for Yule, anyway.

After the gift-giving was finished on Christmas morning, David and Olissa took some of their gifts - the clothing items, mostly - up to David's room.  Olissa was, of course, staying in David's room with him, since she was the only living female staying in the house.

Olissa hung up her clothes quickly, but David preferred to put his in the dresser, so he had to fold them.  She sat on the bed while he worked.

"Flo's not going to be here next year," David said.

"Next school year, you mean?" Olissa asked.

"Yeah."

"What is it she was after?  Government job?"

"She's not sure about her job, but she wants to be on the King's Council.  I guess that requires the Government Administration 1 license."

Olissa nodded.  "I can just imagine the meetings of the council presided over by Flo," Olissa said with a grin.

David chuckled.  He folded clothes silently for a moment, then finally he said, "When she told me about it, I did start to think about some things, and it gave me a question."

"Oh?"

David stopped and looked at her.  "What is it you're after?  Why are you still at Woodward?"

Olissa was quiet for a very long moment.  David continued to hold the shirt he'd been folding, just waiting for her to answer him.  Finally, she said quietly, "I thought you'd have figured that out by now."

"You know I'm dense when it comes to girls," he said.

She looked up at him.  "I don't really know what I'm doing with my life."  She took a deep breath and said, "I'm still here because you're still here."

David set down the shirt he'd been holding, and then sat on the edge of the bed, looking at her closely.  "I'm not sure I understand that.  You've said more than once that you didn't want a relationship with me, so why put yourself through schooling you don't want to be near me?"

Olissa's eyes were bright with tears as she said, "David, I've wanted to be your girl from the first day we had sex."

David shook his head.  "But you said..."

"I know what I said," she interrupted him, the tears spilling down her cheeks.  "I lied.  It was never that I didn't want a relationship with you.  It was that I was afraid to have one."

"Because I'm a demighost?  No, that can't be it, because you didn't know that at first.  Why would you be afraid of me?"

"Not afraid of you.  Afraid of what would happen."

"Now I'm royally confused," David admitted.

"From my very first boyfriend in the ninth grade, every time I have devoted myself to someone, they have ultimately rejected me, dumping me for prettier, skinnier girls.  Except Keith, of course.  He dumped me because I pretended to be prettier and skinnier than I was.  But all of them decided I wasn't worth their time.

"I couldn't deal with the possibility of losing you like that.  From the first day we met, I liked you.  Not for what you did for me, but because of your attitude.  That day I first offered you sex... the way you decided to put my fears to rest...  I knew that I was going to fall for you hard.

"But I knew that I couldn't let myself do that.  If I did, you'd just learn what every other guy has learned: I'm not worth your attention.  The longer I knew you, the more afraid of losing you I became.  I tried to stay right on the edge of your romantic life, giving myself to you whenever you wanted me, and loving every second of that.  But so long as I kept that little bit of distance, I was safe."

Olissa was weeping openly now, and David leaned forward, pulling her into his arms.  She laid her head on his shoulder and cried strongly while he rubbed her back, trying to comfort her.

It took a very long time for Olissa to stop crying.  David levitated the tissue box to where they were so that she could wipe her eyes.  Finally, she settled against David, who had not actually let go of her yet, but had only loosened his grasp slightly.

"After everything we've been through, everything I've tried to tell you, you still thought that I'd reject you?" David asked gently.

Olissa nodded.  "I can't help it, David.  I know you care about me, but that's different from devoting yourself to me."

"Olissa, I love you.  I love you more than I love Lise, Sam, and Anne put together.  You are my best friend.  You are the kindest, gentlest person I know.  You have kept me sane on more than one occasion.  I would never reject you for someone more beautiful, because I haven't yet found anyone more beautiful than you are.  My standard for choosing girlfriends at school has always been, 'Is she at least half as good as Olissa?'  I've tried to tell you... without making you uncomfortable... that I've been in love with you for a very long time."

"I've known for a few years," she admitted.  "I just didn't have the courage to take the chance."

"Can you take the chance now?  Please?"

She looked into his eyes and saw the pleading, the devotion, the love.  She nodded, and then David pulled her to him, and their lips touched.  The kiss started gently, but it immediately strengthened into something more meaningful.

After a few moments, David broke their kiss and rose.  He took Olissa's hand and pulled her to her feet, then kissed her some more.  Finally, he stepped back slightly.

Olissa was wearing a pull-over shirt, and David reached down to grab the hem of it with both hands.  He slowly pulled it up her body.  He was in no hurry; he wanted her to understand how much he cared about her.

The shirt was gotten rid of in short order, and then David undid her jeans, pushing them off her hips and letting them fall to the floor.  With that, he stepped back to her, sliding both his hands along her face and staring deep into her eyes.

"I know you don't believe me, but I think you're absolutely one of the most beautiful women I've ever met."  He leaned in close and they kissed again, this time their tongues getting into the act, slipping tenderly against each other.

While they kissed, David moved his hands around to her back and unhooked her bra.  He then slid his hands down her back until they were resting on her ass.  He gently fondled her butt, causing her to moan softly into his mouth.  Finally, he slipped his hands inside her panties and pushed them off her hips.  Soon, they joined her jeans on the floor.

David once more broke their kiss and stepped back.  He lifted one hand and rested it on her breast, gently fondling it.  He allowed his thumb to slip lightly over her nipple, and Olissa moaned at that, closing her eyes for a second to enjoy the pleasure.

After a bit more of that, David turned to removing his own clothes.  In short order, he was as naked as she was.  She looked down to see his fully erect cock pointing at her.  She reached out and gently wrapped her hand around it, stroking him slowly.

David moved the two of them onto the bed.  Olissa lay down on her back, looking up at him, her legs spread and waiting for him.  David moved above her, his cock resting against her mound.  He smiled down at her, and she readily smiled back up at him.  Shifting his hips, he slid his cock downward, so that the head of his dick slid across her clit and then lower, to press against her pussy lips.

Leaning down, David looked deeply into Olissa's eyes.  Just as he started to push into her, he said, "I love you."

Olissa would have responded in kind, but David kissed her instead.  Their lips and tongues were immediately dancing as David slid his dick deep inside of her.  Once he'd reached bottom, he set up a slow, smooth rhythm.  There was no hurry; they had all day.

As they coupled, Olissa began to roll her hips in time with David's movements, pushing him deeper into her.  She moaned into his mouth as her body reveled in the pleasure he was giving her.

David was trying to control himself.  The feel of her on his cock was intense, and he could already feel his heat rising.  He knew that he wouldn't last too much longer.  He struggled to keep his pace smooth and steady, however.  He wanted to show his love for her.

Ultimately, it was a losing battle, and David finally pushed himself fully within her and stopped.  Immediately, his cum blasted out of his dick, filling up her pussy.  He grunted repeatedly, his lips still locked to hers.  Finally, as his climax tapered off, he broke their kiss.

"We can continue as soon as I fix a little problem," he said with a smile.

Olissa giggled; she knew what he was referring to, but she put a hand up to his cheek to stop him.

"Let me do it the old-fashioned way?"

"If you like," David told her.  He gently pulled out of her, and then rolled onto his back.  She rolled with him, so that she was looking down at him.  Her hand reached out and encircled his shaft.  Her touch sent tingles up and down his spine.

Olissa shifted herself, and then she took the head of his dick into her mouth while she continued to stroke him with her hand.  David's dick was quickly stiffening under her ministrations.  When she slid her lips down onto his shaft, taking most of him into her mouth, he groaned in pleasure.  She kept that up for a minute, but finally, with him as hard as he'd ever been, she sat up.

Olissa lifted her leg and moved on top of David, straddling him.  She held his dick in her hand, aiming it for just the right spot, and then she relaxed her legs, impaling herself on his rod.  The two sat for a moment, gazing into each other's faces while their lower parts moved only slightly.

Leaning down, Olissa pressed her tits into David's chest.  She kissed him strongly, her tongue invading his mouth.  While she was doing that, she began to rock her hips back and forth, sliding her pussy on and off his cock.

David soon began to rock his hips up into her, forcing his dick into her more strongly, causing her to moan in pleasure.  She broke their kiss and sat up a bit, putting her hands on David's chest for support.  David reached up and cupped her tits with his hands, massaging them and toying with her nipples.

Olissa was beginning to pant now, her peak obviously approaching.  Her hips rocked faster and more forcefully.  In just a short time, she screamed out and arched her back, her body shivering as her pussy squeezed David's cock for all it was worth.

David held on to Olissa throughout her climax.  He waited to see if she would be spent, or if she would want more.

The look she gave him when she was finally coherent again answered that question for him.  They shifted position quickly, Olissa on her hands and knees, and David moving in behind her.

David wasted no time sliding back into her pussy.  He stopped for just a moment, running his hands over her ass, but then he grabbed her hips and started to thrust.

Olissa was immediately crying out in joy, the feel of his cock rubbing across the front of her already-sensitive pussy was sending shockwaves of ecstasy throughout her body.  It didn't take much before she was approaching, and then reaching, her climax.  She cried out again, her body loving the feel of it.

When her orgasm had passed, David laid her down on her side, and he lifted her top leg.  He straddled her lower leg and slid his cock into her pussy.  His thrusts hit a whole new spot inside her now, and she closed her eyes and moaned at the sensation.  David didn't slow down his pace; he fucked her as hard as he could.  He was driving her towards another orgasm, and she was approaching it at mach speed.

With an even louder shout of joy, Olissa came, her pussy trying to milk David's cock, but he wasn't ready to come yet.  She shuddered and writhed beneath him, her back arching and her body twisting.

David slipped out of her before her orgasm finished, and then he rolled her onto her back.  He stayed above her, running his hands up and down her sides and occasionally playing with her breasts, just to keep her highly aroused.

Finally, it seemed as though Olissa was recovering.  David put his cockhead to her opening and pushed back inside of her.

"Oh, god!" Olissa cried out in surprise.  She'd had her eyes closed, and the suddenly returned pleasure had caught her off guard.

David did not thrust into her this time, however.  He slowly slipped into her until their hips met, and then he stopped.  He leaned down and wrapped his arms around her, holding her to him tightly while supporting his weight on his elbows.

As David started to ever-so-slowly slide his cock back out of her, Olissa wrapped her legs around his waist.  When only the head of his dick was inside her, he reversed course, sliding into her as slowly as the first time.  He kept up this maddeningly slow, yet insanely pleasurable, pace for long moments, holding Olissa and looking deep into her eyes.

"I love you so much," he told her.

"I love you, too, David," she replied softly, tears filling her eyes.  "And I belong to you now."

David leaned down and they kissed.  Their lips remained locked until finally David slid his cock into her all the way and stopped.  She continued to massage his dick with her pussy, squeezing him and rocking her hips slightly.  In another moment, he came, blasting his load deep into her.  The two didn't break their kiss for another five minutes.

"Why am I working on a Sunday?" David asked Joe as they got in David's glidecar.

"Because you're our resident expert on Earth."

"I thought Vivian knew it just as well as I did."

"She does, for the most part... but it's your turn."

"Gee, thanks."

David drove them up to Gorumshead, so they could pick up his truck in Earth.  Once they'd crossed over to Earth and were sitting in his truck, waiting for it to warm up, David asked, "So, who are we going after?"

Joe just handed him the folder with the report in it.  David opened it, read through it, and then closed his eyes.

Closing the folder, he said, "You're really gonna make me do this."

"Sometimes we have to discipline the people we like, too."

David looked at him and snorted.  He put the truck in drive and headed down the road.

"You're ruining a good weekend, I hope you know that," David said.

"Sorry about that.  Yule go well for you or something?"

"Or something.  Olissa finally agreed to be my girlfriend."

"Hey!  Great news.  Sorry to interrupt the... uh... early honeymoon..."

David waved it off.  "She was getting worn out, anyway."

Joe chuckled at that.

The drive to Pennsylvania took a while, during which time Joe and David chatted about this and that, but not about work.  It was bad enough they had to do this task on their weekend; they weren't going to discuss anything else work-related on their day off.

By the time they pulled into their destination, it was snowing and foggy.  Though it was midday, it was somewhat dark and extremely hard to see.  They went to the door of the business they were coming to, but it was closed due to the weather.

"Great.  Now what?" Joe asked.

"They haven't been closed long.  Look at the snow around the doorway.  It's all been shoved aside by the door.  We have an address where he lives?"

"Yeah, in the truck."

"Okay.  Let's just drive there.  We'll either meet him on the way, or we'll just pick him up at his house."

They got in the truck and started down the road.  David had to be careful because the blowing snow made the roads hard to see.

They were about halfway to the subject's house when they saw the outline of someone walking down the sidewalk.  David muttered a spell to himself.

"What are you..." Joe started to ask.

Suddenly, an ear-splitting wail emanated from somewhere above them, and he could see red and blue flashes appearing in the mist in front of them.

The figure in front of them stopped and turned.  He obviously couldn't make out any details of the vehicle, but the flashing lights were all he really needed to see.  As Joe and David got out of the truck, the figure kept his hands in plain sight.

David and Joe approached the figure until they were able to see each other.

"Aw, fuck me," Jim said.

Joe intoned, "Jim Gillenham, you're under arrest for unlicensed use of magic.  Let's see your hands."

Jim looked at David.  "You hate me enough you've got to use this shit to hound me with?"

"You think I want to be here?" David asked.  "Today is my day off.  You're wasting the time of two Rimohrs who have much better things to do than to arrest you for doing stupid shit you know you're not supposed to do... and that you know we're going to catch you doing.  Now do as you're told and put your hands out, before I do to you what I would so love to do to you if Joe wasn't watching."

"I can turn my head the other way," Joe offered.

Jim looked at David, then held his hands out.  "I can't believe you're busting me for this crap."

"I'm doing my job.  I'd much rather be at home with Olissa in front of the fireplace.  But once again, you're making my life difficult.  Now shut up and get in the truck."

"And if I refuse?" Jim asked.

"Then I'll have a perfectly legitimate reason to beat the shit out of you, so go right ahead."  David's look was as cold as the day, and as hard as stone.  Jim decided not to push his luck.  He walked to the truck.  Joe opened the back door and helped him in.

As David got in the driver's seat, he said, "You make a mess in my truck, and I'll make a mess of your face."  He looked over at Joe, who just nodded, and then they started back toward Gorumshead.

"This is such crap.  It was a fucking illusion spell."

"And you're a dead wand," David replied simply.  "You don't have the right to be doing any kind of spell.  You lost those privileges when you decided that getting laid was more important than respecting other people's rights."

"Oh, don't give me your fucking speeches, David.  I heard about the time you spent in jail.  You're no better than I am."

"Really?  Did you hear about why I was in jail?"

"'Cause you beat some poor guy to a pulp."

"And did your source tell you why I beat him to a pulp?"

"What the fuck difference would that make?"

David said, "That fucknuts wound up in the infirmary because he beat up Prof. Arpilla bad enough that she spent four days in the infirmary herself."

"Ooh, big deal.  Four whole days.  How long was he in the infirmary?"

"Six months.  And I was in jail for three weeks.  He got what he deserved, and I paid the price for handing out that punishment.  The difference between us, since I know you won't understand it without an explanation, is that after I beat that shit for brains to near death, I sat and waited for the Rimohrs to show up and arrest me.  I took responsibility for my actions immediately.  You, on the other hand, are whining and complaining about being arrested for something you knew damned well was illegal when you did it."

"It's a stupid fucking law."

"No it's not, it's just inconvenient for you.  Maybe six more months in the management facility will help you grasp the concept."

"Six months?" Jim cried in despair.

"Second offense of this type, third conviction for anything... Six months sounds about right, doesn't it, Joe?"

"Sounds a bit light, actually.  They're going to want him to get the point."

David nodded.  "Count your blessings.  They don't send you to Barnard Hill for UUM."

"Fuck me," Jim repeated, then put his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes for the rest of the trip.

"Anything?" David asked Joe when he came into the office the next morning.

"No.  No sign of him."

Though David had not yet finished with the visitation lists from the prisons, they had decided to stake out the remaining spots within the pattern for drop sites.  If he had shown up to dump a dead body, the Rimohrs would have caught him.  No one showed up, however.

"Well, it's early for him.  Only two weeks since his last killing."

"The time's been getting shorter, though," Joe reminded him.

"Yeah, I know.  Typical for serial killers.  The thrill wears off faster the more they do it."

"So, what's the next step?"

"I need to finish the visitation records.  Once we do that, we'll know who we're after, probably, and we can go bust him."

"Think we have enough to make it stick?"

"I'm not sure of that, no.  The amount of evidence we have is damned slim.  But once we have a name, we'll have someone's life we can pick apart, piece by piece, and that will probably yield more clues."

"Yeah.  Aren't the records up at your school office?"

"No, I brought them home with me, so they're back at my place.  I just wanted to check in and see if anything had developed."

"Not a thing."

"Okay, well, I'm going to get on those lists, then.  Call me if you need me."

"Will do."

 "What's up, David?" Joe asked.  He seemed in a hurry.

"I finished up with the visitation logs.  I've got a list of about a hundred names we need to run down."

"Okay.  Bring it with you when you come in.  We need you here ASAP."

"On my way," David said, and fogged off.  Explanations could wait; Joe was obviously worried.

"What's going on?" David asked after he set a copy of his visitor list on Joe's desk.

"We've gotten word that there's going to be a gang-related riot in town.  We're suiting up now to get ready for it."

"Suiting up?"

"In riot gear.  Dragonscale armor and protection amulets.  Yours is in the locker room."

David went in and got changed.  His armor was black, of course, like all the others.  There was a replica of the Rimohr hawk on his chest.  He donned his coat over the armor, and then slipped the medallion around his neck.  He felt its power wash over him.  He knew it wasn't all that strong, but it was better than nothing.

Now ready for battle, David moved back into the bullpen.

"You look good in armor," Vivian told him with a smile.  David would have blushed, if he could.

Turning to Joe, David asked, "What are the rules of engagement?"

"We don't start the fighting.  As soon as people are attacking each other, however, you are allowed to take down any combatant.  Least force necessary, but lethal force is authorized.  Whereas there would normally be a review if you put someone in the infirmary, during a riot, the only way they'll call for a review is if you have to kill someone."

David nodded.  "Where's Wilson?"

"Already at our staging area.  We'll be heading there in just a few minutes."

"How does this work?  Do we stand as one big group, or do we work individually, or just what?"

Vivian said, "You should probably stick with Joe or me until you've got a handle on things.  Once you're sure of what you're doing, just go where you think you're needed.  Our primary job is to protect the non-combatants.  Protecting people involved in the riot is not a real concern.  Arresting them is our secondary task."

David nodded.  "The use of weapons?"

"Is authorized," Joe replied.  "Do you have yours with you?"

"At all times," David confirmed.

"Okay.  You ready?"

"No, but don't let that stop you."

Joe smiled at him.  "All right, let's mount up!"

The group of Rimohrs all headed out to a pair of waiting coaches.  As soon as everyone was aboard, the horses took off at speed, moving as quickly as they could while still navigating the narrow streets.

In a short time, they reached the staging area, and they all disembarked.  David stood back while Joe went to talk to Wilson.

"Scared?" Vivian asked.

"Of what?  I can't be killed."

"You seem to be hesitant."

"I just don't want to hear another of Wilson's sermons about not being too aggressive."

Vivian smiled and nodded her head.  Joe came back shortly.  "No violence yet, but the feeling on the street is that one's coming soon."

"Might this be one time we could use divination to figure out where to focus our attention?"

"Maybe, but unless you happen to have a crystal ball on you..." Joe said.

David held out his hand, and his crystal ball popped into place resting on it.

"Ask and ye shall receive," David replied.  He moved back to one of the coaches, to have some quiet where he could use his crystallomancy in peace.

David focused for a long moment, then finally sat up, storing his crystal ball in its usual place before exiting the coach again.

"I need to see a map," David said.

Joe led him over to the control table.  David didn't acknowledge Wilson, but instead looked down at the map, trying to match the imagery he saw in his vision with the streets he saw on the parchment.

Sliding his hand along the map, he finally stopped, his finger at a particular spot.

"Right here," David said.

"Right there what?" Wilson asked testily.

"That's where the trouble will start."

"And how the hell do you know that?"

"Because I'm a seer."

Wilson's face went blank for a second.  He had clearly not thought of using divination in this way.  Finally, his face cleared.  "Joe, take two units and head that way.  I'll hold one unit here, just in case... things change," he said carefully, not wanting to imply that David didn't know what he was talking about.

Joe just nodded.  "Unit 1, Unit 2, you're with me!"

David, who was not officially assigned to a unit at all, accompanied Joe and Vivian.  They once more boarded the coaches and left for another part of the city.

David sat with Joe in a closed business, watching the street.

"What do we do if nothing happens?" David asked.

"Go home and chalk it up to bad intel," Joe replied.  "I'd be perfectly happy with that.  So would Zyla.  And probably so would Olissa."

"Yeah, I don't think she's started worrying about my job yet."

"Don't count on that," Joe told him.

Shortly after that, Joe got a call on his mirror.  One of the Rimohrs had spotted a group of gang members traveling down a nearby street.  David and Joe moved to the door.  Looking across, they saw Vivian and one other Rimohr in the building across the street.

The Rimohr who had the gang members in sight kept up a running commentary of what he saw.  Suddenly, another Rimohr broke into the connection to report another group of apparent gang members heading toward the first.

"They're going to meet right here," Joe said.  "Just like you said they would."

"Think we can stop them before it gets too ugly?"

"Honestly?  No."

"Shit.  What if we step out and stop them before they start?"

"We wouldn't be able to arrest anyone, and they'd just go off and do it somewhere else.  It doesn't solve anything," Joe told him.

"Right," David acknowledged.

In a few more minutes, the first group arrived from the north.  They saw the second group approaching from the west just a minute later.  The two gangs stopped thirty feet from each other.

Though they didn't clearly hear the words being said, it was clear that there was a surfeit of testosterone between the two groups.  Hands were balled into fists, bodies leaned forward, and faces scowled in anger.  Finally, from one of the gang members toward the back of the one group, a spell blasted out, arcing over his gang and landing amid the other gang members.

"It's started," Joe said into his mirror.  "Let's get in there."

As the other Rimohrs emerged, Joe called Wilson to let him know that the gang battle had begun.  He then led David out of the building and stepped into the street.

David immediately drew his staff.  He didn't want to draw his sword; it was too easy to kill someone with that weapon, and he didn't want to chance another accidental death.

Joe cast amplivocis, and then spoke.  "This is the Rimohrs!  You are all under arrest!  Drop your wands immediately, drop to your knees, and put your hands on your head!"

Joe's announcement was completely ignored, except for three energy balls that headed in their direction.  They moved out of the way, and the building behind them took the brunt of the impact.

David sent a spell back at their attacker, but he missed.  Joe then led him into the melee, trying to spell people one at a time, but the Rimohrs were drawing attention, wearing obvious uniforms as they were, and they were each being attacked by both sides.

David used his staff as both wand and weapon.  First he would blast one gang member with a beam of energy, and then he'd slam his staff into another guy's midsection, dropping him to the ground.

David tried to keep Joe in view, but there was so much chaos going on around him that it was difficult for him to watch out for someone else without getting his own head blown off.  Spells were flying every which way, and he had to duck a dozen times to avoid lightning blasts, energy balls, and magical beams that would have done very painful things had they hit him.

After a few minutes, David met up with Vivian, who seemed to be holding her own just fine.  She took down one gang member, but David had to push her to the ground to keep her from being fried by another.  David zapped him with a lightning bolt, and he was sure the guy wouldn't wake up until February.

David helped Vivian to her feet, and she smiled her thanks at him briefly, but then they both turned back into the battle.

The battle raged for a couple of hours back and forth.  Three buildings had been destroyed, and the Rimohrs were taking casualties from both sides.

David had finally spotted Joe, and was now doing his best to keep his friend in sight.

Suddenly, David heard something that made his blood run cold.  The gang member in front of him held aloft his wand and shouted, "Razpadat!"

David could tell that the gang member was aiming at Joe.  He hadn't yet brought his wand down, but as soon as he did, the spell would leave the man's wand, and there was no stopping it at that point.  David didn't have a clear path to push Joe out of the way of what was coming.  He had only a fraction of a second to act, and only one chance to prevent a personal tragedy from happening.

David gripped his staff tightly as he swung the end of it up and forward.  He pushed off with his back foot, powering the swing, giving it as much force as he could muster.

It was as if the world had slowed to a near crawl for David.  He could see the man's hand coming down.  He saw the crackle of the spell beginning to leave the wand.  His staff seemed to be moving through molasses, as if it couldn't possibly connect in time...

In a blink, his staff did connect.  The man's head snapped over hard, and his wand went flying as his body suddenly became a rag doll, flopping loosely to the ground.  David knew, without looking, that the man would never rise again.

He had caused his first intentional death.

Strangely, unlike the disaster at the coach, this time he felt nothing.  He looked down at his... victim.  He couldn't be called an opponent; the man had never known David was there.  He stared at the body for a long moment, until Joe appeared at his side.

"Any idea what that spell he was casting was?"

"Yeah.  You wouldn't have lived through it."

"That's two I owe you," Joe said.

"Who's counting?" David said.  Without much in the way of thought, David raised his staff and let loose a blast that knocked two gang members out of the battle for the day.  Finally, he turned to Joe.  "We have to get these bastards to settle down."

"How do you expect to do that?" Joe asked.

"Fuck if I know."

"Well, if you come up with something, let me know."

"Can we get all the Rimohrs to one side of the fight or the other?"

"I suppose, but why?"

"Because that way, we can use field spells and longer-range spells that would endanger friendlies if we used them now."

"Good idea."

Joe went off to find Wilson, who was supposed to be in charge of this madness.  In short order, an order went out to all Rimohrs to move to the south side of the fighting.

David took out two more people on his way, breaking bones and knocking them unconscious.  He finally met up with Joe, Wilson, and Vivian.

"Any more ideas?" Wilson asked.  David noted his tone was a bit less arrogant.  Apparently Wilson hadn't had to face this before.

Lucky him.

"Field spells, lightning bolts.  Big spells that can target more than one person at a time.  My personal favorite for getting people's attention is..." David turned, aimed his staff, and screamed, "ODRAZIT!"

Three dozen gang members all fell to the ground at once.  Joe, Vivian, and a half dozen other Rimohrs all opened up with lightning bolt spells at once.  More gang members went down.

The remaining gang members all now focused on the Rimohrs, but they would not fight together.  There were two distinct groups of gangsters.  David moved next to Vivian.

"Let's work together.  I'll distract them, and you take them out."

"You got it."

David started casting kiskisippet, zapping a gang member to distract them, and then Vivian would blast them with various spells, knocking them cold.  The others, seeing what David and Vivian were doing, started to do the same.

In short order, the gangsters had only a third of their number still standing.

Wilson once again ordered all of them to drop their wands.  This time, most of them did so, kneeling and placing their hands on their heads.  The few remaining combatants were zapped into submission by three or four Rimohrs at a time.

The next half hour was spent going around and arresting all of the participants.  David moved back over to the body of the man he killed.  He bent down and rolled him over.  The face was a mask of rage, just as it had been at the moment of death.  It wasn't someone David knew, not that he'd expected it would be.  He felt nothing for this... thing.  It wasn't a person to him, hadn't been a legitimate person while it was breathing.

Why is this one different from the last?  David felt no sorrow at all at the man's death.  He was not exultant, either.  He felt, truly, nothing at the event.

Why not?

Wilson came around to where David was standing.

"Do we know who killed this one?" he asked.

"I did," David replied.

"Oh?"

Joe, who had accompanied Wilson, said, "He was attacking me.  David stopped him."

"Why'd you kill him?" Wilson asked.

"He was casting razpadat.  I either had to kill him, or let him kill my partner."

"I'm not familiar with that spell," Joe said.

"It's a disintegration spell," David explained.  "I got hit by it in my second year at the academy.  Hurt like a sonofabitch.  To you mortals, it's universally fatal."

"Us mortals?" Wilson asked, an eyebrow raised.

"What?  The only reason I survived the spell was because I'm not mortal."

Wilson nodded, not wanting to get into it over terminology.  "Did you kill anyone else here today?"

"No.  Lots of injuries, but only the one death."

"Okay.  Well, you know the drill from last time.  You'll be on administrative leave until the hearing.  That might be a little while, given the number of administrative tasks this little fiasco is going to cause.  Why don't you go ahead and take off.  Go home, get some dinner, take a shower, and try to forget this fucking mess."

"All right, boss.  You want me to come in tomorrow for paperwork?"

"Yeah, whenever.  No need to show up first thing unless you want to."

"I've got nothing better to do.  Being on administrative leave, can I at least do some office work?"

"Not officially, but I'm not going to stop you, why?"

"We have that list of people to run down in the serial killer case.  It's all paper chasing.  I figured I could do that tomorrow while I'm there."

Wilson nodded.  "Yeah, that's fine."

"Okay."

"David," Joe said.  "Thanks.  I owe you my life.  Again."

"You know, one of these days, I'm not going to be close enough to save your ass."

Joe nodded grimly.  "Don't say that in front of Zyla."

David nodded.  "I'll see you tomorrow."