Page 18 of Chosen Spirits (The Bartender Mage #4)

"I love you too, darlin'. I'll see you in a few minutes."

Tucker hung up his phone, pocketing it in a side pouch of his kilt as he stood up out of the conference room chair.

He gestured a wave to Executive Director Wu and Director Deimos, who'd eventually joined in on most of the four-hour long speaker-phone conversation while they discussed plans. "I'm going to wait out front for them."

"I'll get a fresh pot of coffee started," Wu said. "Take whatever time you need."

Tucker nodded absently as he left the room, picking up his stride as he headed outside DOMA headquarters to wait on the front steps.

It was pointless to wait in the thirty-degree weather; him being outdoors wasn't going to get Rahul and Leif here any faster.

But as he paced back and forth, burning energy, it felt better than continuing to sit in a chair, his leg bouncing, scratching increasingly repetitive notes on a pad of paper.

He was soon joined by Julia, who finished wrapping a long scarf around her neck as she stepped up beside him. Rubbing her hands together to keep them warm, she began doing finger exercises.

"Thank you for stopping by to help," he said. "I owe you one."

"It's part of the job, but I wouldn't say no to trying some new tea blends," she said in an amused tone, just as Rahul's car pulled into the parking lot.

As he rushed down the steps to meet his boyfriends, he began smelling the honeyed scent of Julia's magic as she started crafting some preliminary runes.

Rahul was the first out of the car, so he went over to him first. He took Rahul's overly warm hands in his own, looking his lover over and sniffing at his chest.Rahul bore a relaxed posture, a confident scent beneath the lingering smell of fast-food burgers, and a grin that spread increasingly wider the longer Tucker investigated him.

Eventually, Tucker made a satisfied ruff.

Rahul lifted one of his hands up to tousle Tucker's hair. "Worried for us, puppy? Nah, we're both fine."

"I'm glad you're okay," he said. Lifting his head up, he gave Rahul a soft kiss on the lips, breathing in the warmth and fire of him. "Welcome back home. Let's do what we need to do, so you both can get some sleep."

Glancing over, he noticed Leif retrieving an item from the back seat, and then their cub waddled over with his burden to join them at the back of the car. Tucker reached a hand out to rub the back of Leif's neck, and his darling mage leaned his forehead into him, smelling weary but of good cheer.

"That's far enough," Julia called out, striding forward. "Set the container on the ground and let me do my scans."

"Oh, geez. Yeah, for sure! You aren't doing them inside, though?

" Leif set the cage on the ground, and Tucker peered at it.

He'd seen the pictures Rahul had taken, but up close, the craftsmanship was even more breathtaking.

Within a crystal cage bordered with ornate, golden framework, was a braced decanter.

It was made of colored glass and shaped like a sleeping swan, holding what looked like a half-gallon or more of a dark-amber liquid.

"No, Mr. Becken, we're not going inside just yet," Julia said as she unfurled a spell, and Tucker noticed Leif wince. He shook his own head in commiseration, entirely familiar with her I'm using your last name because you messed up tone.

"…oh! Yeah, I think I get it now." Leif stepped back and away as a neon white circle surrounded the container.

As Julia continued to make arcane gestures, lines of runes built into a scaffolding.

"We wouldn't want to endanger anyone else, in case this is all a giant trap.

I wouldn't think she'd do that, though."

The runes around the container snapped into place, forming a glowing cylinder, and Julia began looking it over intently as it flickered between different colors in time to her rhythmic finger snapping.

"I'd rather not take that chance," she said.

"However, even if she did not lay intentional traps, something could have slipped past you both during your trip back here.

Or, perhaps being in the car with a spiritmancer for several hours affected its stability.

Or, the decanter itself just so happens to be crafted by volatile magic.

Or, it could all be formed with stable magic, but ones that will resonate violently with the wards and artifacts in our headquarters. "

Leif sighed, then rubbed his arms. Tucker heard Rahul grunt as he jogged back to the car to retrieve Leif's jacket that he'd forgotten to put back on.

"I'm sorry.I guess I was just kind of distracted by my thoughts on the way back."

Julia did one last circuit of the item, peering at it through a conjured lens.

Apparently satisfied, she folded her hands before her, and the lights winked out.

While Rahul helped Leif into his jacket, Tucker took over carrying the item.

It was surprisingly light, only weighing maybe ten pounds, but it was bulky.

"It's an understandable mistake, but it's a mental skill you need to practice," Julia said as they headed through the front doors of DOMA headquarters.

"Rahul especially can tell you about it, but when a magical asset joins a mission, the default expectation is that you'll be the one to think of these outlier possibilities.

I will grant you, though, that anyone coming back from a face to face meetup with elven royalty would be a little off. "

After a pit stop at the bathroom, the four of them met with the two directors in the main conference room. The cage was opened via a mechanism on top that unfolded the walls, though the decanter was left in place.

"It's fine, everyone," Julia remarked after Deimos had a near panic attack when he accidentally jostled the table.

"There's no need to fear knocking it over.

Despite its appearance, it's sturdier than stone, and there are enough protection spells woven within the crystal that if all of Minneapolis were flattened to the ground, it'd still be standing. "

"Thank you, Agent Winters," Wu said. "That does set my mind at ease, knowing some of the personalities who run around the department."

Rahul coughed into a fist. " Jamie. "

"Her, and other detectives who have used my department as their personal ball pit," she countered, looking right at Tucker. He stuck his tongue out at her, before remembering himself. "Alright, let's focus on I'ari first. Deimos?"

The minotaur nodded, and the act of going through his written notes seemed to help him recover from his earlier spook.

"It would have been nice to know exactly how long she plans on holding off her anarchic activities, but whether she meant a week, a month, a year, or a human lifetime, that meeting was still a gift from the gods.

We know her main motive, now, and by her own admission, can link her to a number of incidents. "

"We've also got a video of her, too," Rahul added. "We have her appearance, her voice, and one of her aliases. "

"We can put trackers on her!" Deimos said eagerly.

" Subtle trackers," Wu emphasized. "No APB, nothing public just yet.

We don't want to make her feel cornered, which might cause her to retaliate or go to ground.

I'd also prefer to avoid causing a foreign incident with the Free States during my first month as executive director, if we can help it. "

"While you do that, I'll check into her history," Rahul said.

"What has she been doing these last thirty years?

And whose essence is this? You don't go through years of effort chasing down scattered divinations, and then relinquishing the very soul-sucking weapon that caused the problem to begin with, not unless this person is close to you. Maybe she eloped with her consort?"

"Let us know what you find, Basu." He gave her a nod. "You can get with Deimos about using DOMA resources, if you need them."

"We can start by repurposing the last day of investigating you're contracted for," the minotaur mused. "We can talk it over later. I guess that just leaves this thing?"

As one, the six of them looked at the swan sitting on the table. Tucker saw Leif make like he was going to reach out and touch it, but froze when Julia merely twitched a finger, and he settled back in his chair.

"I tried seeing if I could feel anything," Leif said, then quickly added, "Back in the forest! Just a few seconds of effort, before I was told not to mess with it. I don't know if I can do what Lady I'ari wants, though, the liquid isn't alcoholic."

"I reckon it looks a lot like what you did in our first case together, though, right?

" Tucker reached past Rahul, rolling his chair a short distance closer so he could grip Leif's hand encouragingly.

"When all of them soul shards were about to fly free, you caught them in alcohol bottles.

Maybe I'ari managed to do something similar? "

Leif shook his head. "It's not the same."

Deimos lifted his head up from where he was studying the decanter. "Really? A stolen essence put inside a liquid container seems pretty similar. Maybe you just need to try harder, when you're rested?"

"It's not the same ," Leif repeated plaintively.

"Yes, the liquid is special, but it's completely inert.

Before, for those soul shards, it was like encountering a bunch of rambunctious cats that I settled down by drawing squares on the ground and giving out a ton of treats.

This is more like a stuffed animal that just sits there, and no amount of cardboard boxes or crinkly paper is gonna move it.

If we served it as-is to the person, I don't think the lost personality would return to them.

I'ari would have already done it herself if that were the case, too, I'm sure. "

"Okay," Wu said. "Going around the table, any thoughts or ideas? Deimos?"