Page 49

The Shrieking Pixies were having a convention in Bulgaria, where the wand supposedly originated. The message made a vague reference to “bringing it,” and the hashtags contained the word divide and the initials WOD. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

“I think I found something,” Paige shouted.

“Really?” Dewey asked, dumping his stuff onto the bouncy mattress and flying over.

Paige waved the phone in the air and pointed to the picture. “Read it! It sounds like there are a ton of Shrieking Pixies in Bulgaria right now. And the hashtags mention dividing the world. This has to be the SupNet reference flagged for follow-up.”

Dewey studied the supernatural social media post. “You’re right. Hmm.”

“I think we should book a trip there.”

“Agree. Though…” Dewey’s eyes darted around the apartment.

“What? You don’t want to go? You chicken?” Paige shot him a coy glance.

“No, I’m not. But…well, go ahead and get the ball rolling for the trip.”

“What? Why are you so reluctant?” Paige dumped the books on the floor and slid her notebook onto the side table.

“It’s just…well, I’m almost done with the research, and I think we should try a remedy before we jet off to Bulgaria. I don’t mean to sound too alarming or anything, but I’d feel better if you were on the road to recovery.”

Paige settled back in her seat. “Oh, okay. Good point. Well, before I request this, maybe I’ll do a bit more reading while you finish up, and then we’ll head out.”

Dewey flitted back to his seat and tugged another book onto his lap, crossing his scaly ankles as he grabbed his notebook. “That sounds like a good plan.”

Paige studied the remaining books in her pile, choosing the one titled Magical Items, Their Usage, and Uses. After a scan of the index, she thumbed through the pages, sending a plume of dust into the air.

“Guess this doesn’t get much use,” she murmured, settling on the page with the entry for the Wand of Division.

The entry described the wand’s appearance and how to summon the force to divide objects. A crystal-based structure, the wand, when dormant, appeared to be made of stone. When active, the wand transformed into a prism-like see-through glass exterior. The energy core, visible in the central channel, would begin blue, turn to purple, and finally to red when ready to release divisive force.

Paige’s heart skipped a beat, and the corners of her lips turned up as she read the next statement. On its own, the wand is capable of splitting objects with a mass of up to 10 kg.

She nodded at the book. Ten kilograms had to be small, right? She tapped around on her phone. At a quick glance, the average cat had a mass of five kilograms.

Despite its harrowing reputation, the Wand of Division seemed to be fairly innocuous, at least. Paige settled back in the chair and slid her phone between the cushion and the arm. At least this wasn’t a dire emergency.

She traced down the page with her index finger, finding where she left off.

Two add-ons can be combined with the wand to increase its power. The Crystal of Increased Energy may be affixed to the wand’s tail and provides a boost of power, allowing the wand to split objects with a mass of up to 60 kg.

Paige wrinkled her nose, performing a quick search to find out if the crystal offered the capability to split a human in half. Still, not terrible. Not building-level splitting power.

She tapped her pen against her lips as she pondered the size of the split rock that lent credence to the idea that the wand originated in Bulgaria. Probably smaller than a human.

She pulled her knees up underneath her and read on for information about the second add-on.

A second add-on, which can be used with the CIE or separately, is the liquid form of Holigramium. When dipped in Holigramium, the wand can split objects with a mass of up to 200 kg. The effect of the dip lasts up to forty-eight hours after submersion and subsequent setting of the liquid into a solid form (most quickly achieved with dry ice).

Paige grimaced at the higher mass able to be split before reading the final paragraph. Her stomach rolled and her heart dropped as she scanned the crisp black text on the white page.

If the wand is combined with both the CIE and a Holigramium dip, the splitting power becomes exponentiated, allowing the user to split objects as large as the planet Earth in half easily.

A gnawing fear lodged itself in the pit of her stomach, and Paige bit her lower lip.

This time, the world might not survive.

CHAPTER 11