The Woodward Academy, Year 6

Chapter 7: December

The guards opened the doors and then nodded to David, who was in charge of the small party waiting to be seen.

"Move," David said lowly to the two in front of him.  The two started to walk forward, their eyes moving all around at the sights of the king's throne room.

"You, too," David said, giving Christa a nudge.

"Don't push me!" she whined.

"Move," David commanded in a tone of voice that brooked no argument.  Christa began to walk forward with her two assailants.

The walk to the throne didn't seem to get any shorter with repeated travel.  It felt like an age before the four came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs up to the dais on which the king and queen sat.

"Kneel," David muttered lowly, when the two assailants seemed too overwhelmed to know what to do.

The two went to one knee.

"I hope you don't expect me to kneel," Christa scoffed.

"No, that would require a level of respect you've never shown for anyone," David replied as he, too, took a knee and bowed his head before his king.

"You may rise," the king said tiredly.  "Paladin Stroud, what brings you here today?"

"Your Majesty," David said.  "These two men were caught assaulting your daughter.  As this is a matter which directly affects you and the queen, the law requires that we bring them before you for judgment."

"I see," the king said, his eyes narrowing at the two men before him.  "You two chose to assault my daughter.  Why?"

"We did no such thing!" the one on the left started.  "We were just messing around with her, Your Majesty.  Just a little bit of schoolyard pranking."

"Right!" the other one agreed.  "We weren't going to do anything to her.  Honest."

"Paladin?" the king asked David.

David said, "Your Majesty, when I arrived on the scene, the two men each had hold of Lady Aberlin, dragging her across the terrace of Mt. Woodward.  They were making threats of violence toward her.  When I instructed them to release her, this one attempted to hex me," he said, pointing to the one on the right.  "This leads me to believe that this was no prank, Your Majesty.  Assaulting a Rimohr is a rather serious offense to perpetrate in the service of a prank."

"I would have to agree.  Christa, was this a prank gone wrong?"

"No, Daddy.  They just came up and grabbed me, and started dragging me out of the building."

David said, "I should add, Your Majesty, that this one," he said, indicating the one on the left, "indicated out loud that he was trying to decide whether he wished to rape your daughter before beating her up."

"I did not!" the guy screamed.

"Yes, you did!" Christa shouted back.

"Enough," the king demanded.  Everyone went silent.  "What do you two have to say for yourselves?"

The one on the right looked as if he was trying to say something, but was simply too terrified of the situation to speak.  His head turned from side to side, and finally focused on his partner, who was looking down at the steps, rather than up at the king.

"She had it coming," the one on the left said.

"Excuse me?" the king asked.

"She had it coming!  And so did you!  You, with all the wealth and privilege.  You've never worked a day in your life!  You and your whole family need to feel some pain and suffering for once!" the guy seemed as though he'd grown a bit of a backbone.

The king walked down the stairs.  David saw the queen lean forward, as if to stop him.  She looked worried.

The king stopped in front of the man.

"I have been king for twenty-three years.  I spent five years before that in training to become king.

"Before that, I was a magical items maker.   I specialized in enmagicking objects for spellcasting.  I did that for thirty-two years before the election to king.  I know all about work, son.  I know all about coming home with your hands blistered, your back sore, and your eyes burning.  Forging is often a part of making magical items, and I was never quite good enough to not do that the hard way.  Believe me, I know about work."

"Bullshit!" the man sneered.

"Believe as you wish," the king said.  "My biography is public knowledge.  But even if I had inherited the throne, what right would that give you to harm my daughter?"

"Because you're all pigs.  Whatever happens to you doesn't matter."

The king's look hardened.  "What happens to every person matters.  Even you."

At that, the man leaned forward and spat in the king's face.

No one saw the move.  None of the king's guards had yet had a chance to even react.  David's staff was in his hand and elongated in a blink, and the end of it slammed against the man's stomach in another blink.  The man collapsed to the floor, coughing and wheezing, trying to catch his breath.

David put away his staff and knelt next to the man.  He grabbed the man's hair and pulled his head up.

"You are going to apologize to the king.  You are going to mean it, and you are going to show some respect.  If you don't, then I'm going to show you something I learned recently.  From a gargoyle."

The man's face went even paler, understanding just what someone would learn from a gargoyle.  He looked up at the king, who was just now having his face wiped clean by the queen.

"Sorry, Your Majesty," he coughed out.

The king looked down at him.  "You may let him up now, Paladin."

David yanked the man to his feet by his hair.  The man almost cried out in pain, and tears came to his eyes, but he refused to scream.

The king turned to the other man, who looked, if anything, more frightened than before.

"And why did you want to hurt my little girl?"  The king's voice was low and menacing.

The guy pointed to his partner, and, stuttering, said, "H-he t-talked m-me int-to it!"

"So you just do what anyone tells you to do, is that it?" the king demanded.

"H-he... he's m-my f-friend."

"I think you perhaps need better choice in associates."

"Y-yes, Y-your M-majesty," the man stuttered.

The king and queen walked back up the stairs.  David finally let go of the rude one's hair, but stood close.

"Is there anything further to be said about the matter?"

David looked over at Christa, who was trying, silently, to plead with him to keep his mouth shut.  He, however, wasn't about to do that.

"Yes, Your Majesty, there is," David said.

"Go on."

"These two men were not acting out of the blue.  A great deal of dislike for Lady Aberlin has arisen at The Woodward Academy.  She is not thought well of by very many at all."

"And why is this?" the king inquired.

"I think it best if you ask Lady Aberlin that, Your Majesty," David said.

"Uh-huh," the king replied with a smirk.  "Well, Christa?  What is it you've done that has you so alienated?"

"Nothing, Daddy, I swear," Christa tried.

The king sighed loudly and leaned his head into his hand.  Finally, he looked up at the others, the look on his face one of masked anger. 

"Christa, do you know how many times you have sworn to me over the years that you did 'nothing'?"

"No," she said, frowning.

"I don't either, but it's safe to say it's been a fairly large number.  And, of those times, do you know how many times it turned out that you were actually guilty of something?" he asked, his voice calm and quiet, a sure warning of what was to come.

"No..." Christa replied, her voice growing quiet.

"ALL OF THEM," the king bellowed.  Christa flinched visibly.  "Now, I think it's high time that you come clean.  You've managed to make people hate you to the point they are attacking you physically.  That takes a good amount of emotion, young lady, and that's not stirred up easily, even in young folk like those in college.  Now talk."

The last came out as a demand, and so Christa began, laying out a mitigated list of her wrongdoings, throwing in as many justifications as she could for her behavior.

When she was through, the king looked to David.  "Paladin Stroud, has she been completely honest about this?"

"If a bit one-sided in her explanations, she has covered all of the major issues as best I know them, Your Majesty."

"You and I will speak later, young lady," the king said to Christa, who wilted.  The king turned to the two men.  "My daughter's behavior makes it somewhat understandable how you could develop such a level of hatred.  However, that in no way grants you any privilege to act violently on those emotions.

"You," he said to the scared one, "Will spend the next three years at the Chatsaw Training Center, where you will be closely watched while you learn a trade."

"You, my good sir," the king said to the rude one, "I am honestly tempted to leave your fate in Paladin Stroud's hands... but frankly, I don't really want to see what he learned from that gargoyle, first hand.

"Instead, I am sentencing you to a year at Barnard Hill, in the section known as Venom Block.  Perhaps there, you will learn a little respect for others.  After that, you will join your associate at Chatsaw.  I will not revoke either of your licenses for this, but rest assured, we will be keeping a close eye on both of you from now on.

"Guards, take the two men into custody.  Christa, you may go."

The two men were carted off, and Christa fairly bolted from the room.  David remained, as he had not been dismissed.

"Just what did you learn from a gargoyle, Paladin Stroud?" the king asked, his curiosity obvious.

"How to fight, Your Majesty.  I've been training with the gargoyles since they arrived at Mt. Woodward."

"Good lord," the queen said.  "I've seen them in action.  It's quite brutal."

"It was a difficult few months, I admit," David said.

"You took this upon yourself, in preparation for what is to come?"

"The gargoyles have told me that their presence is not enough to repel an attack on the school.  If I may ask, Your Majesty, what is the military's stance regarding Woodward Academy?"

"They do not rate it as a point of much interest.  Because it has been fully decommissioned as a military base, they don't see any use for it."

"So they have no intention of defending it, should the need arise."

"They would make the same effort for the school as for any other town of the same size."

"Which is not much, correct?"

"Let's just say they would not alter the arrangement of deployed men over it."

"Your Majesty, I have only one goal for what is coming.  That is to defend my home, and my family.  Those both exist on Mt. Woodward.  If the gargoyles can't prevent it, and the military isn't going to stop it, that only leaves me and whoever I can convince to help me.

"Given that, training with the gargoyles just seemed like a good idea."

The king nodded.  "Would you recommend such training for our infantry?"

"Your Majesty, no human would have survived Day One.  I spent my second day in the infirmary."

"I see.  As you can imagine, we, too, are looking for ways to improve our defense of our home."

"I would hope so, Your Majesty.  Is there any chance of avoiding this?"

"You would know better than I, seer.  Do you see a way out?"

David sighed and lowered his gaze.  "No, sir."

"Well, then.  Do you then know how much time we have left to prepare?"

David looked back up at the king.  "I cannot give you any kind of exact number, Your Majesty.  The only way I can answer you is, not much."

The trip back to Woodward Academy was a quiet one.  David was still mulling over what he'd told the king, and Christa seemed uninclined to speak with him.  There were whispers among the palace staff about the berating she'd gotten from the king, which had happened in closed quarters, but like any such staff, rumors traveled even faster than orders.

David escorted Christa back onto campus, as he was her official escort so long as she was traveling.  Once he had seen her safely to her quarters in Firebird Dorm, he left for Bolmont.  He had work to do.

When he arrived in headquarters, he could sense an unease in the air.  When he stepped to his desk, he saw that there were extra personnel in with Agent Keef.

"What's going on?" David asked Vivian.

"Inspector General's office.  They're accusing Agent Keef of serious insubordination."

David's eyebrows went up.  Before he had a chance to say anything further, Joe stepped out of Agent Keef's office and called him over.

"David, this is Agent Wells and Agent Brinkman, from the office of the Inspector General."

David nodded to both of them.

"We've already interviewed everyone else," Brinkman said.  "Are you familiar with this memorandum?"

Brinkman handed David a piece of parchment.  He read through it quickly, then went back through it slowly.  It stated that Bolmont Division was instituting a trial program whereby suspects would be forced to use truth potions, in an effort to speed up the investigation and subsequent arrest of those guilty of crimes.

David handed it back.  "No, I've never seen that.  When was it supposed to have been posted?"

"Three weeks ago," Wells said.

David nodded.  "I assume you realize it's bogus."

"In what way?" Brinkman asked.

"It's a forgery.  And not a very good one, either."

"This has been verified to be an exact match for Agent Keef's handwriting," Wells objected.  "And his signature."

"Well, that's actually the very first thing that's wrong with it," David said.  "Really?  Nobody's told you this yet?"

"Forget what others have or haven't told us.  What are you talking about?" Brinkman asked.

"Agent Keef has never posted memos in his own handwriting.  He doesn't, in fact, write the memos.  He tells Nancy what he wants the memo to say.  She does the research to make sure that what he's asking for is in accordance with Rimohr policy, and then she writes it up and posts it."

"But would he ask her to write up something that was blatantly in violation of Rimohr policy?"

"Why not?  It's not like he could have hidden its contents from her.  He'd have had to post it on the board, or handed it out to every officer.  Sooner or later, someone would have said something to her.  Quickly, most likely, due to the unusual nature of the order.

"There's more, too.  This doesn't follow the current heading format that Agent Keef instituted when he arrived.  Everything is misplaced.  This mimics Wilson's old heading, as a matter of fact.  Whoever did this either has not seen a current memo, or doesn't pay much attention to the... well, the background details.  Not a good sign for a Rimohr, if that's what it is."

"Anything else?" Wells asked.

"Hmm.  Let me see the parchment again."  Brinkman handed it to him, and he felt it.  "Have you checked the paper itself?"

"For?" Wells asked.

David rolled his eyes.  "All official Rimohr communications are on specially marked parchment.  I know you know this.  What's the deal here, guys?  I'm not telling you anything you shouldn't already know better than me."

Brinkman raised a hand.  "Settle down.  We've checked the parchment, and the mark isn't there on the memo."

"Then why would you have ever believed any of this horse shit?"

"I never said we did.  We have to investigate any charge this serious.  Tell me, how hard do you think it would be to make this forgery?"

David snorted.  "Any third-year with the right classes behind him could make that.  It wouldn't convince anyone here.  Really, guys, what's the deal?  Why are you still here?  You had to find all this crap yourself..."

"We did.  We have to interview everyone in the division.  You're the last one to arrive.  Why are you so late, Officer Stroud?"

"I was escorting Lady Aberlin from a meeting with the king back to Woodward Academy," David said, his voice businesslike.  He tried not to notice when the investigators went slightly pale.

"I see.  Well, as you have already surmised, we knew most of what you just told us before we even arrived.  The bit about Agent Keef not writing his own memos we didn't learn until we got here, but you're not the only one to mention it.  As I said, we are required to check this sort of thing out."

"Just out of curiosity, how would you feel about the kind of policy that the memo is endorsing?" Wells asked.

David shrugged.  "I think we waste a lot of time in some cases when a truth potion would certainly get the job done.  On the other hand, where the line is drawn between an unwarranted invasion of privacy and solid investigation is a bit hazy.  That's why we have laws and regulations to tell us where that line is.  I would not object if the law was changed, but I wouldn't obey an order that violates the law."

"Not even if the king told you to?" Brinkman asked, in what he thought was a leading question.

David replied, "By definition, no order given by the king can be unlawful.  The king has the right - by the Decree of Rabb - to temporarily or permanently rescind any law, at any time, for any reason.  If the king were to order me to pull out my sword and behead a suspect in custody, I am duty bound to do so."

Brinkman pursed his lips.  "You remember your Civics lessons well."

"I'm in a job where they have direct impact," David explained.

Brinkman nodded.  "Okay.  You can go."

"Will this matter be closed?" David asked.

"Most likely."

"Does the OIG plan to look into the person who made the charge against Agent Keef?"

"No.  We don't do that.  It would discourage people from reporting activities if we did."

David looked to Keef.  "Well, someone needs to."  He then turned and left the office to return to his desk.  He had a couple days of case work to catch up on.

"Have we gotten a layout of that building in Therebridge yet?" David asked Chloe.

"It's been sent out, they tell me.  Should be here in a day or two," she told him.

"Good," David said.

"Why so interested in the building?" Chloe asked.

"We need to plan our entry.  They're bound to have security at something like this.  We need to hit them like a dragon blasting a small village.  They need to not know what's going on until they're lying on the ground in shackles."

"That could be pretty hard to achieve," she said.

"I know.  That's why we need to plan."

Just then, David's mirror buzzed.  He picked it up from his desk and said, "Hello, Officer Stroud."

The face on the other end was familiar.  It was the barmaid at the Slyther Inn.

"Officer, you asked us to let you know if that Faggioni character came back, right?"

"Yes, ma'am.  Is he there now?"

"He just came in with his goon."

"Do you think he'll be there a while?"

"He's ordered a large lunch."

"Do me a favor?" David said.

"Sure."

"Cook that lunch as slowly as you can."

The barmaid smiled at him and nodded.

David fogged off, and then looked over at Chloe.  "You busy?"

"Yeah, I've got this burglary thing to work on."

"Shit."  David looked around and saw Vivian just coming back from the restroom.  "Vivian, you busy?"

"Nope, what's up?"

"I need an arresting officer."

"Sure thing.  Let's go."

When David and Vivian walked into the Slyther Inn, Charles Faggioni was in the midst of eating a steak.  His buddy, Gulbort Duganyiy, was eating what looked like an entire ham.  The two looked wholly unconcerned about anyone who might come in the door.

The Rimohrs walked up to them, and David said, "Charles Faggioni?"

Faggioni looked up, and then sighed.  "You again.  Well, what is it this time, Officer Stroud?"

David motioned to Vivian.  "Charles Faggioni, Gulbort Duganyiy, you are both under arrest."

"What's the charge?" Faggioni asked casually as both men rose from their chairs.  Vivian took a step back, as she was a bit too close to Duganyiy.

"Operation of a criminal enterprise," David said.

Faggioni's eyes went a little wide at that.  "You'll never make that stick," he said.

"Wanna bet?"

"That's what you said last time, Officer," Faggioni said with a smirk.

"Last time, you didn't make a major fucking mistake in your tactics," David said.  "I have you cold.  You're looking at the next twenty to thirty years in Barnard Hill."

"Oh, I think not.  Gulbort?" Faggioni said.

The large man swung on David, but David was expecting it.  He faded himself, and Gulbort's hand swished right through him.  As David resolidified, he pulled his staff and leapt off the ground.  His body was almost a blur as he spun.  His staff connected with Gulbort's head, and the spell David had cast helped to throw the demi-ogre across the room.  He crashed into a table, crushing it beneath his bulk.

David landed deftly, his staff pointed right at Faggioni's throat.

"Care to try something yourself, rather than hiding behind your bodyguard?" David asked.

Faggioni looked over at Gulbort, and back at David.  He then put his hands up.  "No, I think not," he said.

"Too bad," David replied, stowing his staff.  "I could use the practice."

"You can't prove I'm running any sort of criminal enterprise, because you can't prove I'm a criminal," Faggioni said calmly.  He was sitting across from David in the Quiet Room at headquarters.

"Yeah, see, I'd have had to think of that, now wouldn't I?" David replied.  He thumped a thick folder on the table.

"And that would be?"

"The sworn complaints against you for threatening shopkeepers with harm if they didn't pay you protection money."

Faggioni waved it off.  "You tried making that charge stick once already, Officer."

"You're right, I did.  But last time, I didn't have these."  David thumped a smaller stack of papers on the table.

"And those are?"

"The sworn statements of the five Clan members who were working with you, detailing the orders you gave them directly in response to the refusals you got from the shopkeepers."

"Like anyone's going to believe them."

"Each one has already agreed to take a truth potion if the magistrate requests it."

Faggioni's breath caught at that, and David knew he had him.

For a long moment, nothing was said.  Finally, Faggioni replied, "Even if - and I'm not admitting to anything - but even if I gave them orders as you say I did, that is, at best, conspiracy.  Two, maybe three years."

"Oh, it would be, but you made one mistake.  One big, honkin', mountain-dragon-sized mistake."

"And what's that?" Faggioni asked solicitously.

"You used The Clan."

Faggioni snorted.  "So what?  I'm no member of that pitiful group.  Their activities don't tarnish me."

"But their status does," David said.

"How's that?"

"You used people who have been declared illegal in the furtherance of your conspiracy.  By definition, that is operating a criminal enterprise.  When you chose to continue affiliating with The Clan after the king declared them a natural threat, you signed your own travel papers to Barnard Hill.  OCE is a mandatory minimum twenty year sentence."

Faggioni looked a bit pale, but also knew that this was going somewhere.  "You've spent too much time getting to the point, Officer Stroud.  What is it you want?"

"I want you to help me capture Robert Beckel."

Faggioni snorted.  "You think I'm about to help you?  Why would I?"

"Because it's the difference between twenty years in Barnard Hill, and simple exile."

"You don't have the stones to make that deal," Faggioni temporized.

"I haven't filed my report yet.  Though I didn't arrest you, I am the investigating officer, and what I say you were arrested for, is what you will be officially charged with.  Now, that can be OCE, or that can be simply Habitual Criminal Conduct, for which you will agree to be exiled without trial."

"Why would you do that for me?" Faggioni asked warily.

"Because, in the grand scheme of things, you're a piece of dog shit.  When you step in dog shit, you don't stop your entire day and rant about it.  You scrape it off on the nearest rock, rub your shoe in the grass, and go on with business.  You are unimportant to me, so long as you can no longer harm the people in my enforcement area.

"Rob Beckel, on the other hand, is responsible for the deaths of several of my friends, and the attempted murder of my training officer.  I want his fucking head on a pike.  You help me put it there, and I let you off easy.  You don't, and I will recommend the full fifty year sentence for OCE to the magistrate.  Simple as that."

David sat back and stared at Faggioni.  Faggioni tried to stare at him, but he was in the unenviable position of being on the wrong side of the negotiations for once.

"How do I know you'll keep your word?" Faggioni asked.

"Because that's something I do," David said.

"It could take a while.  Beckel's pretty skittish, what with that damned order from the king."

"I'll give you two weeks.  Oh, and don't bother running.  You've been traced; if I have to come find you, it won't take long."

"What if I can't convince him to come see me within two weeks?"

"Then I hope you like emotional torment and physical discomfort," David replied matter-of-factly.  "Do you agree to the terms, or not?"

Faggioni sat and stared for a long moment, but then finally said, "Okay, deal."

David said, "Prof. Zoroaster told me that he needs you to focus on the ethics of divination.  So, who can tell me a reason not to divine someone's future using crystallomancy?"

One of the students raised their hand, and David acknowledged her.

"Because they've told you not to."

"Okay, yes, that's a good reason not to, but the way you've phrased it doesn't go far enough."

"What do you mean, Professor?" one of the other students asked.

"It's not enough to simply depend on someone to tell you to not do something you shouldn't.  In other words, you shouldn't divine someone's future unless they have specifically told you that you can.  Otherwise, it's like reading their mail.  No one has to tell you to not read their mail; you already know that's impolite, and an invasion of privacy.  Divination is so much more invasive than that, you should never do it without permission... with a few exceptions.  Now, who can give me the exceptions?"

There was a pause before one guy said, "If you think someone might be in trouble?"

David grimaced.  "Define 'trouble'."

"In danger," the student specified.

"Okay, now there's one that almost everyone agrees with.  If you sincerely believe that there is a danger to someone, then it is generally accepted that divination is appropriate, but only as it relates to the danger.  Yes, Janet?"

"Professor, you said it's 'generally accepted'.  There are people who don't agree with this?"

"There are people who believe all divination should be outlawed.  They don't like the possibility of other people peeking into their lives.  So, yes, there are people who object to it even under these circumstances.  Now, any other exceptions to the 'only when explicitly allowed' rule?  Merkle?"

"If you think someone's going to hurt someone else."

"Yes.  Absolutely.  But be aware that you won't be able to be a witness in court.  Divination, except under very strict limitations, is not allowed to be evidence.  On the other hand, if you can prevent someone from being hurt or killed, then by all means, do so.  But, again, don't use that belief as an excuse to go rifling through someone else's life.  Any other exceptions?"

"How about if you think someone's going to commit another kind of crime, that doesn't involve someone getting hurt?"

"This is generally not considered acceptable.  The information can't be used in court, so it has no real use."

"But what about protecting the victim of the crime?  Like... say someone's going to steal from a shop.  Wouldn't protecting the shopkeeper be a good thing to do?"

David nodded.  "It would, but there's another way to work that.  If you believe that someone is going to steal from a shop, then talk to the shopkeeper, and get their permission to do a divination.  In that way, you're doing a divination related to the shop, and possible crimes that would happen within, rather than trying to catch a specific person.

"You can also just tell the shopkeeper you have suspicions about someone, and identify them.  Then it's up to the shopkeeper what to do with that information."

"To shorten things, as we're getting near the end of the period, let me add a couple other reasons you might end up divining someone without their permission.  If they are ill and unable to communicate, and the healer believes that your divination could be helpful, this would be a time when it was acceptable.  If someone is missing and presumed to be in danger, then it is also acceptable.

"The general principle here is, if your divination is trying to help someone, and you can't otherwise get their permission, then it is usually okay.  If you're doing divination to satisfy your own curiosity, that's ethically wrong.  Are there any questions on these points?"

David waited for a long moment, but no one raised their hand or spoke up.

"Okay.  Before I dismiss you, there's one last issue that Prof. Zoroaster has asked me to speak to you about.

"Over the last few months, some of you have come to the professor with visions of dark days ahead.  At this point, the events are in range of just about all of you, and I'm sure that some of you have seen things you've not reported, either for fear of being ridiculed for dreaming up horrendous visions, or for personal reasons.

"The professor asked me to cover this specifically because he felt that you might believe me a little better, as I'm not quite as closely tied to the government as he is.

"First off, let me assure you that the king and his court are well aware of the kinds of visions that are being had, and they are fully aware of the events that are approaching.  Some of you, I know, have spoken to the Ministry of Defense already.

"Next, I want to implore each of you to keep this information to yourself, as much as you possibly can.  If you tell people, invariably what you say will get distorted when it is told at second- and third-hand, and then we end up not with your vision, but with a rumor, that is probably going to be highly inaccurate.  I know that some of you have seen visions involving your families.  For you, I know it will be almost impossible to not relate your worries to them.  All I can say is, tell them as little as you can get away with, in order to convince them that they are in danger.

"Look, I'm right where you are.  I've been aware of the approaching problem in one form or another since the end of my third year.  I've had specific visions for over a year now.  I have interpreted three oneiromantic dreams for people, and those are some of the worst things I've seen.  I know what you're going through.  All I can say is, trust Prof. Zoroaster.  Tell him what you're seeing.  Let him decide who needs to get the information.  He speaks directly to the king; that's where he is right now, in fact.

"If you feel like you just can't talk to Prof. Zoroaster or Prof. Dartson, then please, come talk with me.  It might take a mirror to find me, as I'm often not on campus these days, but rest assured, if you need to talk something out, I will make time for you.  What you say to me doesn't necessarily need to go to the king.  Maybe you don't want to speak up because you're not sure about what you're seeing, or you think your vision might be incorrect.  I do have the ability to look into things independently from the Ministry of Defense.  As a Rimohr, I can do my own digging before we take these issues to the king's court.

"Anyway, it's just another option you have.  Try not to dwell on these visions, either.  I know that's almost impossible, but they can overwhelm you if you obsess over them.  Do what you think you can do to prepare for what's coming.  Beyond that, just hope that what we're all seeing can somehow be averted."

"Are there any questions?"

"Professor, are we safe here?"

David frowned.  "I don't know."

"Have you seen Tom since?' David asked the student.

"You think we're going to let him back into our room after he swiped our stuff?" the girl asked indignantly.

David grinned.  "I didn't mean that.  I mean, have you seen him around campus?"

"Oh.  Um... maybe once or twice, I guess."

"Where?  Can you remember?"

"Once was outside the lunch hall.  He was begging for scraps.  And the other time was... near Hyneman Hall."

David nodded.  "Okay.  If you see him again, please make note of it.  Try to follow him at a distance, if you have the time.  And give me a holler on the mirror.  We're trying to track down where he spends his time."

"You talk about him like he's a person," the other girl said.

David shrugged.  "He's a suspect.  A weird suspect, I admit, but a suspect.  I'll treat him like all the other suspects."

The girls giggled and nodded.

"Anyway, that's it for now.  Just let me know if you spot him.  Even if you can't follow him."

"Will do," they both promised.

David nodded and then left their door.  He made his way to the rock lift, then up to the terrace.  He had interviewed each of the victims of Tattered Tom the Klepto Kat, as someone had tagged him.  He wasn't actually sure whether Tom was a normal cat, a familiar gone rogue, or someone playing games in disguise.  Any one of those was possible, though it would have to be an exceptionally smart cat if it wasn't a familiar.

 As David made his way toward the rock lift near Hyneman Hall, Tanya joined him.

"Any luck?" she asked.

"Not really.  He's been spotted about a dozen times, all told.  No pattern I see so far in the sightings.  Of those, about a third of them were near the lunch room, which just means the cat likes to eat."

"Maybe that's the best place to catch him, then."

"I've thought about it, but he's unpredictable about when he's there, and let's face it; we stick out like sore thumbs."

Tanya chuckled.  "Too true.  So, what's your plan?"

"Who says I've got a plan?"

"Oh, come on.  You always have a plan."

"Not until I come up with one, I don't.  And I haven't figured out what to do about this cat.  So far, we have only a couple pieces of useful information.  He's smart, he's occasionally hungry, and he really doesn't like Oscar."

"That last one seems strange to me.  Why should he care about a familiar?  Oscar's never accosted any cat that I'm aware of."

"I couldn't tell you.  This whole case is bizarre.  I'll keep at it, but I've got something pretty serious coming up next week, and that's going to take a lot of planning to prepare for, so I'm not going to be able to give this much attention."

"That's okay.  With the break coming up, he won't have anyone to steal from, anyway."

"Be a good chance to see if you can spot him, though.  If he's a student, he won't be around during the break."

"Good point," Tanya agreed.

"Anyway, I'm gonna grab lunch.  You want some?"

"Sure.  Why are you eating lunch?  You said you don't get hungry."

"Don't get fat, either, and the food here tastes great," David said with a vicious grin.

"Oh, that's so wrong," Tanya said, and laughed.

"Hello, David.  Is it time for your semester review?"

"If you have a few moments, Professor," David said.

Prof. Zoroaster nodded and motioned David to a chair.  "So, tell me what you've accomplished this semester.  As it relates to Divination, that is.  Some of what you've accomplished this semester scares me, and I don't want to think about it," he said with a smile.

David chuckled.  "I've completed three objects.  A mid-level viewing lens, a warning clock, and a weather gauge."

Prof. Zoroaster nodded.  "How well does your warning clock work?  I must confess, I never did get mine to work the way it should."

"You couldn't get it to warn you?"

"Oh, it would warn me just fine... if I wanted a warning that someone was going to knock on my door in about three seconds.  Anything further out than that was a complete no-go.  I never could figure out why.  How well does yours work?"

"About a minute and a half or so," David said.  Warning clocks were countdown clocks that would warn you when someone was about to knock on your door.  The clock portion would count down until their arrival, and a viewing lens above the clock would show a picture of who was coming.

"That's pretty good.  If you can refine it, get it out to at least three minutes, then you'll have a hot seller on your hands.  A top-rate warning clock goes as far out as ten minutes, and those sell for hundreds of granas.  Even one that gives a minute and a half could bring you about fifty."

"Really?  Hmm.  May have to work on it, then.  Once I got it working at all, I moved on.  I didn't have a chance to see if I could perfect it."

Prof. Zoroaster nodded.  "And your weather gauge?"

"I've managed to get it to give accurate weather out to three days.  I built in a dial, so you can ask it for the weather later today, tomorrow, the next day, or the day after.  As you turn the dial, the indicators on the gauge change.  I thought about incorporating a viewing lens for that, too, but couldn't figure out how to connect the lens to the precognition magic."

"There is a section in a fairly obscure book that talks about it.  If you want to pursue it, I'll give you the name later."

David nodded.  "I'd like that.  It makes the gauge more usable, in my opinion."

Prof. Zoroaster nodded.  "And the viewing lens worked without issue?"

"Yeah.  It was one like they use at the Centaur Games for the steeple chase.  I enchanted it to follow the last rider in one of my peg riding sessions."

"Why the last rider?" Prof. Zoroaster wanted to know.

"Well, the spell I used views the person from behind, so in essence, I get to see everyone behind me, as I am always in front.  That way, I can tell if anyone's having a problem, or if they're goofing off."

"Very clever," the professor praised.  "You've done very well this semester with your divinatory objects.  Especially considering all the other things you've had going on.

"Do you have any questions concerning what you've worked on?"

"No... other than the name of that book."

"Right.  I'll look it up and let you know.  You and I haven't had a chance to talk since last week.  How did the classes take your talk on ethics, and concerning the war?"

"The ethics talk was pretty straightforward.  The talk about the war just seemed to make everyone nervous.  Two people have already come to talk to me about things they were reluctant to report to you."

"Anything the king needs to be aware of?"

"He's already aware of them, in both cases.  They related to specific families, but in places we already know about."

Prof. Zoroaster nodded.  "You'll let me know if you hear about anything new."

"I always do," David said.

"I know.  And I, and the king, appreciate it.  Your information has been invaluable.  I know you think that your visions seem too specific to the school to be of much use, but they tell us a lot about the weres' intentions."

David nodded.  "I just wish we could convince them to stay put."

"So do I, but that doesn't look very likely.  No one is seeing a happy outcome to the negotiations."

"Yeah, that's what the briefing docs said."

"You're finding those useful, I trust?"

"I don't know about useful.  I sure do find them troubling.  But I'd rather know, than not know.  You know?"

Prof. Zoroaster smirked at David's play on words.  "Yes, quite.  In any case, try to have a happy Yuletide, and we'll see you in January.  I'll want you to come see me at the beginning of the semester, but really, you'll just be continuing from where you left off.  If you feel like working on it over the break, go ahead and do so."

"Sure thing, Professor.  You planning on sticking me with your students again in the spring?"

Prof. Zoroaster chuckled.  "We'll see what the king says."

"Uh-huh.  Have a good break, Professor."

"You, too, David."

"Why the fuck is an intern in charge of this thing?" one of the Pithala officers asked Agent Keef.

"Two reasons," Keef said.  "One, he's been on the job longer than you have, and two... well, you'll see about two in a minute."  Keef turned to David.  "Okay, David, give us the brief."

David nodded and stepped to the wall.  He had charmed it to act as a writing board temporarily.  Using a writing wand, he drew a quick outline of the building's interior.

"There are four primary entrances, plus one that appears to be a staff-only entrance.  Instead of covering that one, we're simply going to bar it shut from the outside.  This may prove beneficial, since it will give them what appears to be an escape route, but is ultimately a dead end.  As you see, the staff entrance comes into this hallway, and the nearest door off that hall is thirty feet from the entrance.

"The four entry teams will each take a door.  Agent Keef, you're with me at the main entrance.  Joe's team will take the north side entrance.  Vivian's team will take the eastern south-side entrance, and Roger, you and your guys can take the western south-side entrance.

"Once inside, we can't know where their security will be located, so keep your eyes open.  If they have any brains at all - and they have certainly shown that they do - they will have at least one roving patrol, as well as stationary guards.  So we have to do this quick; if the stationary guards are missed by the roving patrol, they'll sound the alert."

David went on to detail the path through the building for each team.  Once he'd finished that, he began to discuss the actual auction hall itself.

"This room has six entrances.  Agent Keef's team will split into two to cover the two main entrance doors.  Roger, your team will split to take the two rear entry doors.  Joe and Vivian, your teams will take the doors on your sides of the building.

"Once inside, it could be a free-for-all.  Do not take chances.  If it looks like someone on our side is going to get hurt, take the opponent out.  If that means taking them all the way out, so be it.  The OOM has authorized lethal force on this if necessary.

"Either Agent Keef or I will announce our presence.  At that point, have your wands pointed and ready to hex.  We don't know how hostile the slavers are, and the customers are likely to be completely unpredictable.  Watch your back... and the back of the guy next to you.

"Any questions?"

"What if you and Agent Keef are taken out?  Who's next in command?" Roger, who was the head of the Pithala team, asked.

"Technically, I can't be taken out, but I guess I could be knocked unconscious.  Under those circumstances, you're the ranking officer.  Once the assault has been completed and everyone's in custody, the investigation belongs to Agent Garibaldi and Officer Kirkland."

"Not you?" Roger asked.

"I'm an intern.  No cases ever belong to me," David said.

"Right," Joe snorted.  David just glared at him for a moment.

"Anything else?" David asked.  There was nothing.  "Okay, then.  Let's check our clocks."

Each team had a synchronized countdown timer with them.  They all pulled them out to verify that they were still in synch.  Once that was done, David nodded.

"Let's move out, then," David said.

The teams moved out.  It was thankfully dark, so they could move fairly quickly without being seen.  The building they were assaulting was a large meeting hall with several side rooms and hallways, and they had to worry about guards peeking out windows.  Though the moon was up and nearly full, it was a cloudy evening, threatening snow.  The wind was cold and David was glad for his ComfortCloak coat.

Agent Keef knelt beside David, who was kneeling in an open doorway across the street from the meeting hall.  Chloe stood in the shadows behind him.  Four other officers stood in the small shop, waiting for their orders to go.

When the countdown timer reached two minutes, David motioned to Keef, who motioned to the rest of the team.  They ran across the street in a crouch, their wands drawn and their coats billowing in the wind.  David pressed his back against the building on the right-hand side of the double doors.  Keef was on the left-hand side.  Chloe and two officers were with David.  The other two officers were with Keef.

David held the countdown timer in his hand.  It was one of the rare times he'd wished for technology in the last six years; a wristwatch would have been very convenient, but they weren't worn in Dugerra.

When the timer reached ten seconds, David held up his hand to alert Keef.  At five, he slipped the timer into a pocket, and simply counted it down by hand.

At zero, Keef and David both reached for a door handle.  As expected, they had been locked.  A quick avatavana spell took care of that, and they slipped into the building.  Two guards were there, but they weren't awake long enough to do anything.

David and Chloe moved quickly down the hall, looking into each side room on the right side.  Keef and his chosen partner were doing the same on the left side.  The remaining officers kept watch in the hallway.

In short order, the hallway was cleared of guards - there had been four more - and the subunit found itself in the lobby of the meeting hall.  The doors to the great hall itself were right ahead of them.

"Keep your eyes out for a roving patrol," David reminded everyone quietly.

They all watched for a long moment, then they rushed across the lobby to the doors.  David, Chloe, and one of the officers went right, while everyone else took the left-hand door.

David pulled out his mirror and contacted the other teams.  Once he'd gotten confirmation from everyone, they readied to enter the room.

Keef and David both moved in front of their respective doors.  David raised his hand, and his wand.  Dropping his hand to signal Keef, he then shouted, "Arietalasqua!"

The door in front of David flew across the room so hard, had it hit anyone, it would surely have killed them.  It spun three times before impacting a wall, breaking the plaster and embedding itself.  David and the others rushed through the doorway.  He briefly looked to his left, to see Keef entering the room as well.

In a few more seconds, other doors burst in, and the remaining officers entered the hall.

David cast amplivocis on himself, and said loudly, "Rimohr Officers!  We are here to execute an arrest warrant!  Do not resist!  Place your wands on the floor, and raise your hands above your head!  Do it now!"

Before David was even able to finish his little speech, three people had fired at him.  He had cast a protective field around his team, however, and the blasts had no effect.  The others in his team returned their own hexes, and those who had attacked were quickly on the floor, writhing in pain.

It didn't take too long to get all of the slavers rounded up.  The daubentonians were luckily not in the hall at the time.  The auction had not yet gotten underway fully.

"Round up the customers," Keef said.  "They're all in violation of the law."

As David stood by and watched - he had no arrest powers, so couldn't be of assistance with this phase of the operation - he suddenly heard an all-too-familiar voice amongst the crowd.

"Remove your hands from me!" the voice said.  "You have no right to manhandle me!"  A blast forced one of the Pithala Rimohrs to go flying across the room.  He crashed into three chairs and lay bleeding on the floor.  Those of the suspects who were still mobile got as far away from the attacker as possible.  They didn't want to get hit accidentally.

"Take her down!" Keef ordered.

"No!" David shouted, much louder than Keef.

Keef looked at David, astonished that he would try to countermand an order by his commanding officer.

"This bitch is mine," David said darkly.  "Clear the hall."

Keef did no such thing, though he did motion everyone back out of David's way.

"YOU!" the woman screamed.  She ran headlong at him, pulling a sword from within her coat as she came.

David quickly pulled out his staff, elongating it.  As his attacker raised her sword up to strike, David swung his staff, deflecting her sword down and away from his body.  He then reversed his motion, the end of his staff connecting with her chin and sending her flying flat onto her back.

"Nice to see you, too, Devyn," David said sarcastically.  "Would you like to surrender to us now, or later?"

Devyn rolled over, and then got to one knee.  Looking back over her shoulder, she snarled, "I will never surrender to you!"  She launched an energy ball at him, which flew at high speed toward his head.

David merely turned aside, the energy ball missing him by inches.  He raised the end of his staff and used it to send a laser-like burst of energy, which impacted Devyn in the back, sending her tumbling across the floor.

"You aren't going to win this fight any more than you won the last one," David said.  "You are going to surrender, and you are going to be arrested.  If you continue the fight beyond this point, I will add the charge of assaulting a Rimohr to your case."

"I don't recognize your authority," Devyn spat.

"Ooh, a contraction!  Will wonders never cease!  Are you that pissed off, or was that whole thing just a bunch of bullshit to make you feel important?"

Devyn rose to her feet and picked up her sword.  "I want to see you dead!"

Devyn ran at him, launching herself into the air and twisting for a side-kick, her sword ready to strike if she knocked him down.

David faded to insubstantiality, and watched in amusement as Devyn flew right through him.  He turned as she landed.

"Already dead, remember?" David taunted.

Devyn spun, her sword swinging in a blur.  David blocked it with his staff.  She tried to advance, tried to push him back, but he merely stood his ground.  Each strike she made with her sword, he parried.

After several strikes, David delivered a palm strike directly to Devyn's nose.  She staggered back several feet, blood gushing down her face.

"I can do this all day long.  I'm willing to bet you can't," David said.  "Surrender now."

Devyn looked up at him, her eyes blazing with fury.  "Never!"

Devyn's move was so fast that she actually managed to cut David's arm before he was able to parry the rest of her attack.  The wound burned, but he had no blood to lose.  He couldn't be distracted, however, as Devyn was already attacking again.  She raised her blade and came down in a slanting attack.  David moved aside at the last second and then blasted her with an energy ball.  Devyn went flailing to the ground, but she kept a firm grip on her sword.  She knew that if she lost hold of that, the fight was done.

Devyn struggled to her feet, and turned to face David once again.  David simply stood, waiting for her to regain her feet.  As soon as she did, he thrust both hands forward, his staff held loosely in a horizontal fashion.

A strong wind issued forth, and Devyn was blown backward, tripped over a chair, and tumbled to the ground, hitting her head in the process.  She rose, but was a bit woozy and unsteady.

David did not give her time to chant a mind-clearing charm, but instead launched another energy ball at her.  This one she was able to duck, mostly out of luck.  It also gave her the necessary time to clear her head.  She leapt up from behind the chair she had tripped over, and fired several darts of energy at David.

David slipped and moved, avoiding the attack, then swiveled, pointing his staff at her and shooting a bolt of lightning out its end.  Devyn jumped out of the way at the last possible moment, but she ended up tumbling over yet another chair.

"What's the matter, Devyn?  All this furniture slowing you down?  Here, let me help you," David said.

David put his staff away, uttered a spell, and pushed his hands outward.  Suddenly, every chair in the place went flying toward the walls, where they stacked themselves neatly.

"God I love magic," David muttered.

"You should have been more worried about your health," Devyn spat.  "Now you are unarmed."

She charged him with her sword raised high.  As she closed the distance, David slipped toward her and leveled a punch to her solar plexus.

Devyn dropped like a bag of rocks.  Her lungs refused to take in air.

"Nope, not unarmed.  Got one on each side... and they're all I need to take down a pathetic bitch like you."

Devyn wheezed and coughed, until finally she was able to catch her breath.  As she rose, she glared at David.

"Are you going to surrender to the Rimohrs now?" David asked.

"I'm going to walk out of here, and step over your unconscious carcass when I do it," she spat.

"I highly doubt that," David said.

Devyn shot her own bolt of lightning, and David had to jump clear.  He rolled and came up to his knee, and lashed out a tripwire hex, taking Devyn off her own feet.

As Devyn rose, David pulled his sword.  "You know this is a pointless fight.  Not only was I better than you at our last battle, I have spent the time since training.  Somehow, from the looks of things, I doubt you've used that sword for more than an outfit accessory in the last couple years.

"But you also know there are things I can do you simply can't defend against.  You have exactly zero chance of winning this battle.  There are only two ways out of this room for you.  Surrender now.  Don't make me kill you."

Devyn looked up at him, her nose still bleeding, her lip split, her chest sore, and her body aching.  She spat out blood onto the floor.  Her look was almost manic.

"I will surrender... when Haven freezes over!" she screamed, and launched herself into an all-out run, her sword clearly ready to slash.

David faced her, then he turned slightly sideways, an energy ball appearing in his hand.  He turned back toward her, thrusting his arm forward.  The energy ball raced toward her, impacting her before she could even realize it was coming.

Devyn was tossed all the way across the room.  She slammed into a wall, and dropped to the floor.  She was so dazed and woozy that she had no chance of rising.

David walked over and pulled her sword out of her feebly resisting hand.  He gave it to Chloe, who stepped back away from the two.

Devyn rolled face-up and looked at him with utter contempt.  "Still too weak to kill me?"

"I have killed several people in the last couple years," David said.  "It's nothing to brag about, or to enjoy.  There is no weakness in sparing a beaten foe.  But in your case, it's not mercy that has saved your life."

"What, then?" Devyn asked, feigning interest.

"If I kill you, you get to go to Haven, and you get off scot-free for what you were doing here.  There's no punishment that can be levied once you're dead, and I've been to Haven; it's no punishment.  Sure, it's not the best place to be, but it's certainly not Venom Block.

"No, you're still alive because I want you to face Barnard Hill.  I want you to spend the next fifteen to twenty years wishing you were dead."

Devyn glared up at him, but she was completely unable to prevent him from enacting the handcuff hex on her.  He motioned Chloe over, and then stepped back.

Chloe said, "Devyn, you are under arrest for the crime of attempting to purchase a sentient life form."

"Get this pile of shit out of here," David said to the other officers.  They hauled Devyn to her feet, but she struggled.

"Why?" she demanded.

"Why what?" David asked.

"Why fight me, if you're so much better than me that you could have just blasted me from the beginning?"

"Practice," David said with a shrug.  He motioned the others, and they took her now-unresisting form out of the room.

Keef walked over to him.  "Very entertaining, if a bit outside policy.  I gather you and she have a history?"

David smirked.  "Used to be my girlfriend."

Keef chuckled.  "So... why did you really fight her?  I know you well enough to know she wasn't a challenge."

"I told her the truth.  I did it for practice.  Unfortunately, her skills have degraded so much from lack of use that she really wasn't even a useful sparring partner."

"I wouldn't have wanted to face her," Keef said.

David shrugged.  Changing the subject, he asked, "Did we get everybody?"

"Oh, yeah.  A couple tried to make it out the back door, but they got trapped in that hallway."

"Anyone on our side hurt?"

"Just some minor wounds.  Nothing serious."

"Good."  After a moment, David said, "Um... sorry about the insurbordination back there..."

"Insub... oh, when you stopped them from blasting her?  No worries.  As I said, it was fun to watch.  Remind me never to get on your bad side, though."

David laughed at that. 

"So you've been working with her more than I have," Joe said as they drove into Newbury for their latest disappearance.  "How is Chloe doing?"

"Joe, do you have any idea how inappropriate it is for you to ask an intern about the performance of an officer?"

Joe snorted.  "You're an intern in name only.  Hell, even Keef doesn't think of you as an intern.  You're the only one still hung up on that.  So how's Chloe doing?"

"She's doing fine.  She still gets a little lost when cases get complicated, but that should work itself out.  I've given her a few tips on organizing her case information, and that seems to be helping.  It's not that she can't put the pieces together, it's that she has trouble getting them organized so she can see all of them at once."

"How about in the field?" Joe asked.

"Chloe and I have always worked well backing each other up, all the way back to our DIRT days.  She gets intimidated a bit too easily.  I'm trying to help her with it.  It's just inexperience."

"You didn't have that problem," Joe pointed out.

"I come from a different mindset.  Chloe's a people person.  Getting rough with people doesn't come as second nature to her, so she still has to think to override her instinct to try to build a consensus."

"Did she have that problem when you were at school?"

"Only with the 'normal' students.  We all knew what The Clan was about.  For them, her thinking had already been done.  That's the thing out here; she's faced with different people every time she goes out, and she doesn't know them, doesn't know how they'll react.  Because of that, she falls back on her natural reaction.  She just needs to learn to switch gears a bit faster when someone becomes belligerant."

"I'm sure you can help her out with that," Joe said with a chuckle.

"Hmph," David replied.

When they arrived at the scene, the forensics unit was just pulling up.  Once David and Joe stepped out of the truck, however, everyone stopped.  They stared as the two Rimohrs made their way into the home.  The front door had a perfectly circular hole in it.  The scene was familiar.

Except for the dead body.

"Well, that's new," David muttered to himself.

"Detective Agnes Farmer," the woman said, shaking David's and Joe's hands.

They introduced themselves, and David asked, "What have you discovered so far?"

Det. Farmer just waved her hand.  "What you see is what we got.  No idea who made this mess or how.  No idea what made that hole in the door or these holes in the walls.  Not even sure how this man died."

"Who is he?" Joe asked.

"Name's James Greer.  Twenty-six, owns a construction company.  Specializes in what they call mid-rise buildings, as well as some smaller high-rises.  Well, he did..."

David nodded.  "Any criminal history on him?"

"He was once charged with negligent homicide, but other than that, nothing."

"Isn't that enough?" Joe asked, looking at David.

"What were the circumstances of that case?" David asked.

Farmer looked at her notes.  "His company built a ten-story apartment building that collapsed, killing twenty-two and injuring over a hundred."

"How long ago was this?" David asked.

Farmer said, "About two years."

"And he's out on the street," David said to Joe.  "Almost certainly our boy."

Joe nodded.

"Our boy?" Farmer asked.

"We've been tracking a series of disappearances.  We're pretty sure these people are being kidnapped.  We think he's a vigilante, grabbing people who he sees as having gotten away with something.  What he's doing with them, we haven't yet figured out."

"Well, in this case, he made a big mistake," Farmer said.

"Yeah, he killed the guy," Joe said.

"More than that," Farmer replied.

"Oh?" David asked.

"Greer was conclusively proven innocent of the charges.  He never even went to trial, because the DA dropped the case.  Turns out that his project supervisor was embezzling funds from the company, and using substandard materials to cover the monetary loss.  When the building collapsed and then his boss was arrested, it didn't take too long for him to confess."

"You sure it was an honest confession?" Joe asked.

"You know many people willing to spend life in jail for someone else?" Farmer replied.

Joe grunted.

"Besides," Farmer added, "He was able to give proof of the embezzlement.  He had the invoices for the material deliveries... he nailed his own coffin shut."

As Joe grunted again and nodded in acceptance, David knelt over the body, which was face down.  "Why did he kill this one?" David asked, almost to himself.  To Farmer, he asked, "Has the photographer been in yet?"

"No, he's waiting out with the rest of the unit."

"Get him in here, please."

They waited patiently while the photographer got all the shots he needed of the body in its 'as found' position.

"Help me turn him over," David said to Joe.  The two carefully rolled the body onto its back.

"Oh, lord," Joe said, and backed away.  The man barely had a face.  David looked closely, and saw the signs of magical attack.  He moved his way down the body, which showed other signs of insult and injury.  When David got to the hands, he stopped.

"Well, here's the probable reason he's dead," David said.

"What have you got?" Farmer asked.

David held up the hands.  "Bruising around the knuckles.  Chances are he fought back."

"And this guy... who hasn't so much as hurt someone before, so far as we know... takes him all the way out?" Joe asked.

David looked around, and found what he was after.  "Look here.  A blood stain.  I think our victim injured him.  Probably bad enough that he couldn't finish his task.  He might have killed him out of sheer anger... or it might have been so that there were no witnesses to identify him."

"But we know he can change his appearance," Joe objected.  "Surely he wouldn't have shown his proper face to his victims."

"Probably not.  But maybe he thought there were other things that our victim could tell us.  Something about his speech, or his manner, or..." David's voice trailed off.

"But all of that can be-" Joe started to say, but David raised his hand for silence.

"We're not alone," David said quietly.  He moved across the room, around the couch and to the easy chair.  In front of the chair was an ottoman.  It was a large one, and David wondered...

Reaching down, David grabbed the cushion of the ottoman and yanked.  The top swung up on a hinge, exposing a storage space within...

And a young girl hiding inside.

"Who are you?" David asked softly.

"I'm Ella," she said a bit shakily.  "I live next door."

"Why are you hiding in the footrest?" David asked, keeping his tone calm.

"So the bad man wouldn't get me," she said, trying not to cry.

"Well, he won't get you now, Sweetheart," David said.  He helped her out of the ottoman and then picked her up.  He kept her head facing away from the dead body as he carried her outside.

"Go on in, guys.  We're through for now."

The forensics team began to swarm over the house, collecting whatever evidence they could.

"Ella," David said, setting her down on the hood of his truck, "Did you see the bad man?"

Ella shook her head.  "I was hiding in the footstool before he got in."

"Why were you in the footstool?"

"Uncle James and me were playing a game."

David nodded.  "Is he your real uncle, or just a family friend?"

"He's real close with my Daddy."

"Okay.  So you visit him a lot?"

"Yeah."

"Did you hear the bad man?  Did he say anything?"

"He told Uncle James to come with him, but Uncle James said no."

"What happened then?"

"I heard some... like, electrical sounds, and some crashing.  Then someone hit someone else... it got real loud for a little while, with the electrical noise and the crashing again... and then it got real quiet.  I didn't know if the bad man had gone away, so I didn't come out."

"Okay, Ella.  Thank you for your help."

"Can I go home now?"

"Sure."

David helped her down off the truck.  She started to leave, but then turned back.  "Is Uncle James going to be okay?"

David frowned.  He refused to lie to the child.  He said gently, "No, Sweetheart, I'm afraid not."

Ella finally started to cry, and David hugged her.  She wept for a long while, but nobody said a word about it.  Finally, her sobbing tapered off to sniffles.

"Is your Mom home?" David asked Ella.

Ella nodded, her eyes bleary and her nose running.

"Come on.  I'll take you home."

David walked the girl back to her own house and talked to her mother, explaining what had happened, and seeing if there was any information that the mother could lend to the investigation.  Unfortunately, there wasn't.

"So who called the cops?" David asked Det. Farmer when he got back on scene.

"The mailman saw the door open and the hole in it.  He called it in and moved on."

"Nice guy."

"He had mail to deliver," Det. Farmer said with a shrug.

"This is our case," David said, "but I will keep you in the loop with whatever we find.  If you get any new information on it, please let us know as soon as possible.  Whatever you do, do not go after this guy without us.  You wouldn't stand a chance."

Farmer nodded, and then David and Joe took their leave.

Once they were back in Dugerra, on their way to Bolmont in David's glidetruck, David said to Joe,"It's high time we catch this motherfucker.  When I get back from Yule break, this is gonna be highest priority."

"What's changed?" Joe asked.

"Up till now we've been speculating about his motives, what he was doing with the victims.  Well, one thing's for damned sure."

"What?"

"He's now a murderer."

"Okay, so, do we have any new information on this kidnapper?" Joe asked.

"The Newbury PD has sent the blood off for DNA analysis.  That could take... well, it could take months, but probably at least a few weeks."

"And what would it tell us?" Vivian asked.

"Probably not a damn thing.  Unless this mutt's been arrested and DNA-typed already, it only gives us something to match him to later."

"Anything else?"

"Blood was found on the sidewalk and down the street.  He did not park in Mr. Greer's driveway.  He couldn't have parked too far away; managing a hostage, even if they're cooperating through fear, is a tricky business.  However, a canvas of the neighborhood turned up no suspicious vehicles spotted."

"Does that perhaps mean our suspect lives there?" Chloe asked.

"Very unlikely," David said.  "More likely is that no one was paying attention.  Another possibility is that the suspect visited the neighborhood for a couple weeks before he attempted the abduction.  You see a car the first time, it's unusual.  You see a car consistently for a week, you assume it's someone who lives in the neighborhood."

"But wouldn't they know everyone who lives in their neighborhood?" Tom asked.

David snorted.

"Did I say something funny?" Tom asked innocently.

"Newbury is a town of over 6,600 people.  Small by Earth standards, but big enough that people aren't going to know everyone on their block."

"Oh."

"And Earth is a mobile population.  People move into and out of neighborhoods all the time.  It isn't likely that a vehicle, if it was seen just parked on the street or in a driveway, would be any cause for comment."

Tom nodded.

"So what you're saying is we've got no more than usual on this asshole," Joe said.

"That's about it.  We've got hairs and fibers, but the hairs will have been morphed, and the fibers belong to clothing that has probably already been vaporized, if it wasn't morphed as well.  The little girl is sure she'd recognize the man's voice if she heard it again, but that voice was probably false, and even if it was the right voice, there's no way in hell I'm putting her on the stand."

"That wouldn't be your call to make, though," Joe pointed out.

"Wanna bet?" David warned.

Joe took a breath.  He didn't want to get into an argument with David over the little girl.  He'd already seen with his own daughter just what David was like on that score.

"So what do you plan on doing from this point?" Joe asked.

"I'm going to go back through everything.  I'm going to interview people again.  I'm going to try to find something, anything, that points to who's doing this shit."

Joe nodded.  "Okay.  Now, on to the slaver case, which is coming up for trials next week."

"There have been several plea deals made," Chloe pointed out.  "Including your good buddy Devyn," she said to David.

David snorted.  "What did she manage to plea down to?"

"Conspiracy.  A lot of them are getting off on that.  Since we busted in before the auction really got underway, we can't make purchasing a sentient being stick."

"Wait, she's getting off on the assault on a Rimohr charge?" Peter wanted to know.

"David refused to file that charge," Chloe said.

David put in, "Her attack was so incompetent, it's hard to call it an assault."

"Huh.  I hope I'm never on the receiving end of such an 'incompetent' attack..."

David shrugged.  At that point, Nancy entered the room and walked over to David's desk.  She handed him a note, nodded, and then left, not wanting to interrupt the meeting any more than she had to.

David read the note, and then picked up his mirror.

"Who you calling?" Joe asked.

"Faggioni asked me to call him back.  I had my mirror on Do Not Disturb."

David made the call, and got the information from Faggioni that he had been looking for.  Once he finished with that, he tucked his mirror in his pocket.

"So," David said, "do you want to actually try to bring Beckel in?"

"Of course, why?" Joe asked.

"In that case, you'd better send some people with me."

"You don't think you can handle him?" Dikko sneered.

"I don't think he'll survive the trip if I go alone," David said bluntly.

When Beckel walked into the Mystic Wolf Pub, Faggioni was already there, as were the Rimohrs.  They were all dressed in civilian attire, and David made sure that his back was to Beckel.  If the man was paying attention, he'd still be able to see David's face in the mirror behind the bar, but David had his head turned away as much as he could, to obscure the image in the mirror.  He had brought Jailla along, and was actually watching through his eyes at the moment.

Beckel sat down at the table with Faggioni, and it was clear that the conversation was animated.  David grabbed his mead from the bar and moved over to the table.  Beckel had stupidly sat with his back to the bar, making it easy for David to approach unnoticed.

"I can't keep giving you guys, you know," Beckel said.  "I haven't got an endless supply.  And the fucking Rimohrs are after my ass.  I can't exactly go out recruiting; they'd find me in a heartbeat!"

"Actually," David said quietly as he sat down between the two men, "we already did."

Beckel tensed.  David said, "Don't try it, stupid.  There isn't a way out of this building for you."

"Except through you," Beckel snarled.

"Even if you could manage that, and you can't, it wouldn't help you any."  David waved his hand around.  Beckel turned to look, and suddenly, there were a half dozen people staring straight at him.

"Didn't dare take me on alone, eh, Stroud?" Beckel asked snidely.

"Beckel, they're not here to protect me.  They're here to protect you.  My boss wants you arrested.  Figures it'll make a nice statement to convict you and sentence you.  Personally, I think stringing your body up outside the courthouse and letting the birds and dogs pick at your corpse would deliver the same message, if not stronger."

"You really expect me to just come along quietly?" Beckel demanded.

David said, "Yes, I think once you think it over and realize the position you're in, you will.  I admit that I'm hoping you don't."

"You seem awfully sure you can take me," Beckel said smugly.

"Are you even carrying a weapon?" David asked reasonably.

"You know that carrying a weapon without a license is illegal, Officer," Beckel replied.

"I'm carrying two of them," David said bluntly.  "And I've spent three and a half years learning how to use them.  You stopped your education after your fourth year.  I'm in my seventh.  You are little more than a bully who got a bunch of people to follow him.  Yes, I'm pretty sure I can take you."

David's tone was so matter-of-fact that Beckel actually didn't have a good reply.  After a full minute of contemplation, he finally said, "What the hell.  You can't touch me, anyway."

"Excuse me?" David asked.

"I'm protected, you stupid shit!  You won't even get me back to your damned office."

"We'll see about that," David said, and motioned with his hand.

Joe and Vivian both came over.  Joe said, "Robert Beckel, Charles Faggioni, you are under arrest.  Put your hands in front of you and cross your wrists."

Joe enacted a new handcuff hex that had been developed in another division.  This one allowed less freedom of motion in the suspect's hands, making it harder for them to fight back.

"Hey!  I thought we had a deal!" Faggioni shouted.

"You fucking prick!" Beckel snarled, kicking Faggioni in the shin.

David back-fisted Beckel, knocking him to the floor.  Faggioni was now limping.  David told him, "We have a deal.  I said you would go to a nicer place.  I never said you were going free."

"Fuck," Faggioni opined.

"Let's get them out of here," David said to Joe.

"He was actually shocked that we arrived here unscathed," Vivian said to David in some surprise.  "He really believed someone was going to rescue him."

David nodded.  "And that belief can only have come from a promise made by someone else.  What I want to know is, who?"

"Brr, it's cold," Lise said.  She and David were walking along the lakeshore.  It was the Day of Redemption, and David had made arrangements so that they could spend this day and the next together at his house on Lake Stikkendon. David knew he needed to be back home for Christmas Day, but he could miss the Day of Expectation.  Sam and Olissa were spending the day together, probably plotting something for Christmas.

"We can't spend all our time on the floor in front of the fireplace," David said with a grin.

"Why not?" Lise retorted.  The two had made love for the last several hours, but they'd decided to take a break for lunch and a post-meal walk in the snow.

"Umm," David replied with a smile.  "I'm sure I'll think of some reason..."

"Uh-huh," Lise said, and hugged him tighter.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a flash of green light hit the two of them.  The spell was clearly intended for Lise, as nothing happened to David.  Lise, on the other hand...

David watched as his lover changed shape from a voluptuous woman, shrinking smaller and smaller, until she wound up as a small anole.  Anoles, being cold-blooded lizards more common to the southern parts of Callamandia, rather than the northern climes, were not well-suited to being plunked into a half-foot of snow.

David knelt over Anole-Lise, and closed his eyes.  He reached out with his mind, using his divination to feel for someone nearby.  He felt, at the far reaches of his abilities, someone dashing away.

"Valk tohutu!" David screamed, his wand aiming in the direction of his thoughts.  He felt the spell connect with the distant target, but whoever they were, it didn't manage to take them down.  David felt their presence fade out of range, and he couldn't spend the effort to pursue; he had to help Lise.

Scooping her up in his hand, David could tell that Anole-Lise was already shivering.  He tucked her inside his coat and made for the house.  Once inside, he set her down on the hearth, and then went to get a piece of parchment.  On it, he wrote "Yes" and "No", then he set it on the counter.

When he retrieved Lise from the hearth, he could tell that she had recovered her temperature, and was more comfortable.  David set her on the piece of paper.

"You can't talk, and I don't speak lizard, so we have to do this the hard way.  I'm going to ask a few questions, and you can answer Yes or No by just walking onto that word.  Got it?"

Lise walked onto "Yes".

"Good."

Once Lise had walked back to a middle point, David asked, "Are you hurt at all, other than being a lizard?"

Lise walked to "No".

David sighed in relief.  "Okay, great.  Now, can you morph yourself back?"

Once again, she answered "No".

"Shit.  Okay, is the reason that you can't morph yourself back because you can't talk?"

No.

"Because you can't hold your wand?"

No.

"Because the spell is too strong?"

No, with an extra stomp for emphasis.

"Okay, okay, I was just asking!  Um...  Shit.  Wait... is it because you don't know what the spell was?"

Yes.

"Crap.  I'm not about to know.  I suck at morphing.  Might Cat know?"

No/Yes/No/Yes.

"Are you trying to say you don't know?" David asked with a chuckle.

Yes.

"Well, shit.  Okay, let me give her a call.  If she's even picking up her mirror today.  I don't know what she and Prof. Phillips were planning."

David mirrored Cat.  It took a little while to get a response.

"David!  Happy Yule!" she said.

"Happy Yule, Cat," he replied, his voice conveying his mood.

"What's the matter?" she asked immediately.

"Someone has morphed Lise.  She can't morph herself back because she doesn't know the spell, and she can't really go looking through books at her size..."

"What's she been morphed into?"

"Some kind of little lizard."

"Well, she said she wanted to lose weight," Cat said with a chuckle.

Behind him, he heard Anole-Lise stomp her foot on the parchment.

"I don't think she thought that was funny," David said with a smirk.

"Whoops.  Didn't know she could hear me.  Anyway, what can I do?"

"Any idea what the spell was?"

"It could have been any of dozens.  You know that.  There are lots of different ways to achieve the desired outcome with Metamorphosis."

"Aw, fuck.  Oh, sorry.  Um, well, do you have any suggestions for me?"

"Just start running through the countercurses.  Sooner or later, you'll find it."

"That could take days," David replied, stricken.

"A couple, maybe," Cat allowed.  "There's nothing else for it.  Even if you brought her here, I'd have to do the same thing."

David sighed.  "Okay.  Don't know why I thought you'd have an easy answer.  None of these attacks has ever been solved easily."

"Attacks?"

"Well, what would you call an unwanted morph?  The person who did it hexed her and ran away."

"Damn.  Well, good luck.  I'm sure you'll get her fixed up in no time."

"Right," David said, not believing her for a second.  He fogged off with her and turned back to Lise.  "Well, let's get started, I guess.  Do you have any idea which books these countercurses will be in?"

Yes.

"That's good.  At least I don't have to read your entire library."

For the rest of the Day of Redemption, and most of the Day of Expectation, David flipped through book after book in Lise's collection.  Once he found a countercurse to try, he'd do so.  The concentration required for some of these wore on him.  He was not skilled at metamorphosis, and his only saving grace, if it could be called that, was that countercurses could not 'go wrong'.  They either worked, or they didn't.  The last thing David wanted to do was to make things worse by turning her into a mosquito or something.

For her part, Lise paced the length of her desk.  She wasn't worried, as such, because even if David could not find the countercurse, he would simply take her to someone who could.  This was highly inconvenient, and terribly annoying, as they were wasting their time together on this, instead of doing something more fun... like lying in front of the fireplace some more.

David pulled down another book, opening it and beginning to flip through pages.  A quarter the way through, he found another possibility.

"Okay, here we go again."

Lise stopped her pacing and walked to the corner of the desk.  If the spell worked, she would need to slip off the desk, instead of dumping everything else off it.

"Komons hoop datie spelwa tekpro beer hetom virenvolle dag tesok, nou eint likjou inenper sunverander."

Suddenly, the anole on the corner of the desk started to change.  It grew and morphed, slowly turning back into Lise.  She wound up standing next to the desk, just as she appeared the day before.

"Finally!" she said.  "I don't even like touching lizards, let alone being one!"  She sank down into David's lap.  "And you did a wonderful job finding a cure."

David snorted.  "Hardly anything to praise me for.  All I did was keep trying what was in the books."

"But you didn't give up, now did you?  You could have left me to a healer or another morph instructor."

"But then we'd have had to have argument-makeup sex, because you'd be mad at me.  Now we get to have celebration sex, instead.  Much more fun."

"Mm.  I like the sound of that," she purred, and kissed him, slipping her tongue into his mouth.

The two kissed for a long time, while David kneaded her breast softly with his hand, and slowly worked her blouse open.  Once he had that fully undone, she broke their kiss and then slipped it off her shoulders.  With that gone, she slid off his lap and knelt on the floor, facing him.  Her hands reached for his belt, and he turned so she'd have better access.

In a few seconds, she had his belt undone, and his trousers open.  Another few seconds found his erect cock standing proud out of the slit in his boxers.

Lise licked her lips, and then slowly engulfed his rod with her mouth, taking nearly three-quarters of him inside before she had to back off.  She set up a slow pace, using her tongue and lips together to drive David crazy as she moved on his cock.

David closed his eyes and just enjoyed the sensations.  He tangled his fingers in her hair to encourage her to continue, and she did.  For long minutes she worked over his dick, until he was right on the edge of coming.  At that moment, she pushed her mouth all the way down on him, deep-throating him and massaging the head of his dick with her throat.

David groaned loudly and came, his jism blasting out of his dick.  For a long moment, he held her head into his lap, his hips shuddering with the pleasure of it.  When he was finally able to, he let loose her head, so she would be able to breathe, but she kept her mouth on him for several more seconds, working him over.

When she did finally slip her mouth off his prick, she looked up at him.  "You seemed to like that," she said with a grin.

"A little bit," he acknowledged sarcastically.  "Let's get you out of those pants, and see if I can't return the favor."

Lise was nude in only a few seconds, and then David pushed her up onto the desk.  She spread her legs wide and ran her finger through her slit.  David leaned in and replaced her finger with his tongue, sliding along her pussy lips slowly, arousing her.

Lise moaned in pleasure and closed her own eyes this time, leaning back and putting her hands on the desk for support.  When David stiffened his tongue and pressed it into her hole, she groaned loudly at the pleasure of it.  He wiggled the tip of his tongue against the inside of her opening, and then slowly withdrew it, only to push his way in again.  Lise was quickly moaning as her heat rose.

Once he was sure she was on her way, David moved his tongue from her opening up to her clit.  He slipped it this way and that, making light, sensuous contact.  Lise's hips were beginning to shake as the pleasure was starting to overwhelm her.  David pressed his lips to her clit and began to suck on it, his tongue sliding gently over it as well.

It was only a few more seconds before Lise screamed out her pleasure, her juices washing over David's face.  David continued to suck on her clit until she had to push him away, unable to take the intense pleasure any longer.

While Lise was settling from her climax, David stood up and removed the rest of his clothing.  His cock had returned to hardness watching Lise in the throes of climax, and he was more than ready to enter her.

He didn't wait for her to settle completely from her previous orgasm, but David did give her a chance to mostly catch her breath.  Still, when he pressed into her, it was a bit of a surprise, and she squeaked at first, but then she moaned long and low at the feel of him filling up her tunnel.

"Oh, god, I love that feeling," she groaned.

David pulled all the way out of her, and she groaned again, in a whole different way.  With that, he slammed into her full force, and she screamed in pleasure.

David thrust rapidly into her for a minute, but then he slowed down, going just fast enough to keep her arousal up.

"You can... go fast again... if you want," Lise said, panting in ecstasy.

"Oh, no," David said.  "I'm not letting you off that easy.  I had to spend a full day putting you back the right way.  I'm collecting my payment for services rendered."

"You're not going to fuck me for an entire day, are you?" Lise asked in concern.

"I might," David said with a wicked grin.

"I won't be able to walk!" Lise protested.  David could tell her protest was half-hearted, at best.

"Guess you'll just have to stay in my bed, then," David told her.

Lise just groaned.

For a very long time, David kept up the slower pace, prolonging their pleasure and communing with her.  Finally he felt the time was right, and he sped up again, gripping her hips for leverage and thrusting deeply into her.  Lise was quickly moaning and rolling her hips against him.

David leaned close as he could sense her climax was almost upon her.

"I love you, Lise," he whispered in her ear.

With an ear-splitting wail, Lise came.  Her arms wrapped around David, crushing him against her.  Her body jerked and shuddered as the blissful sensations washed over her.  For a long, long time, she was unable to even think.

When she was coherent once more, she looked David in the eyes.

"I love you, too."

"Enough to give me the orgasm you now owe me?" David asked mischievously.

"I'm going to die today, aren't I?" she said with a grin.

"Just a little bit... over and over again," David replied.  The two chuckled at the joke.

"I wish we lived closer together," Lise said.  "Then you could at least stay overnight."

"That would be nice.  But I can't.  I'm supposed to attend the staff Christmas Party up at the school.  Why, I have no idea, since I stopped being staff months ago."

"You'll always be part of the family there, David.  You've taught a class.  You've been chief of security.  Hell, you have an office on campus."

"That was a convenience."

"Doesn't matter.  You may not be part of the paid staff, but you're still part of Woodward."

"I guess."

"Take me home, so that you can at least get back in time to get your four hours."

"Okay.  We need to do this more often.  Maybe over Spring Break."

"I'd like that.  Don't you have to help Miss J, though?"

"Usually.  But I've missed times with her before..."

"I wouldn't want to take your help away from her.  Maybe the weekend at the start of Spring Break, or at the end, we could do."

David nodded.  "Come on, it's cold out, and the carriage isn't heated, for some reason."

"You'll keep me warm, won't you?"

"I don't think that's allowed in the public coaches," David said with a raised eyebrow.

Lise laughed.

"About time you came back to work," Joe said, needling David.

"Some of us take holidays off," David replied.  "I needed a break."

"How is Prof. Fibblebitz doing?" Joe asked.  David had mentioned that he had planned to see her over Yuletide.

"Fine, now that she's not a lizard anymore."  David explained the attack.

"This is getting ridiculous.  You still haven't got any clues?" Vivian asked.

"No.  And that's not the case I'm going to be worried about right now, anyway.  We've got to catch this damned kidnapper."

"Where do you even start with that?" Vivian asked.

Before David could answer, Agent Keef came over to them.  "First, you start with our official response to this idiotic report."

Keef handed it to Joe, who read through the synopsis.  "You've got to be kidding me," Joe said.

"Nope."

"What is it?" David asked.

Joe handed it to him.  "It's a report detailing the ineffectiveness of the division, as demonstrated by our recent lack of case closures."

"By recent, would you happen to mean during the time we were under audit?" David asked.

"You've got it," Keef said.  "Of course, the report makes no mention of that."

"Who filed the report?" Vivian asked.

"It was 'anonymous'," Keef said.  "Part of the Inspector General's policy that allows members of the agency to report problems without putting their careers in danger."

"Uh-huh," David said.  "Also allows people to make spurious accusations without fear of being called out on them."

"It does that."

David sat for a long moment, tapping the report on his desk.

"What're you thinking?" Joe asked.

"The audit.  The forged memo.  The bribery complaint.  This report.  All of these are bureaucratic bullshit ways of interrupting the operation of this division.  Now, who do we know with an axe to grind against the Bolmont Division, who just loves regulations and bureaucracy?"

Joe and Vivian said it together.

"Wilson."