Page 60 of Transfiguration
“Nope. Most Pillars don’t socialize outside their element. And I know that’s shitty, but other than the old Pillar of Water, I’ve met none of the others.” Seiran tucked his phone away. “Let’s get her outside for the authorities to find.”
“What about the marks?”
“No one needs to see those other than us,” Seiran said, snapping a few pictures. “If they stole the power of a Pillar, it’s not something we want made public.”
“Fuck,” Con cursed again as he reached out to lift the woman’s body. “This just keeps getting worse and worse.”
TWENTY-FIVE
They left her body outside, leaning her respectfully against a tree and easy to find, then destroyed the remains of the spell and left. Seiran pulled over at a gas station to call it in, but Con used his glamour spell to mask his appearance and make the call, borrowing the phone from the attendant. He got back in the car, and they headed toward Seiran’s again.
“Cameras are everywhere,” Con said. “Better safe than sorry.”
“It’s not as solid a glamour as what Bryar or Kaine can do,” Seiran said.
“No. Not really glamour at all, but works to fool cameras.”
“I wish I could create a disguise like that. Change my looks.”
“Why?” Con asked. “Thought you and the vampire were back together.”
“We are.”
Con didn’t push when Seiran failed to elaborate. It wasn’t his business to get into the Pillar’s space. He had his own personal troubles to sort out, and he hoped when they returned to the house that there might be some sign of Sam or Luca rising. But there was nothing. They walked in and it was after three in the afternoon, and the house was silent. Kelly left a note that the cake was in the fridge, and the kids were up north at their grandmother’s cabin. Con wondered if it was really a cabin or another earth fortress as Tanaka Rou had been one of the most powerful witches in the Dominion for several decades.
Con cast a longing look toward the arboretum, but everything remained still and unmoving.
“It’s too soon,” Seiran said.
Con pulled out the bag with the bone in it and the scrap of fabric from the bag. What did it mean? He sighed. Tired, but unwilling to rest yet.
“What do you do to track objects?” Seiran asked, cutting off a slice of cake. He held up the knife, silently offering Con a slice. Con shook his head.
“History, then create a signature to follow. I have to know something about the item before I can find a trail to it. Pictures help. Stories of eyewitnesses.” He frowned at the bone. Who did it belong to? Had it been used to kill the Pillar, or for something else? He grabbed a paper napkin, set it on the counter, and dumped the bone out of the bag onto the paper. The feeling was instant, a void. The bag suppressed the energy of the bone with some sort of barrier spell.
“That’s nullification magic,” Seiran said, dropping his fork onto his plate.
Did that mean “Could this bone be Matthew’s?” Con was not a believer in coincidence. They were missing a body. Matthew was a null and a vampire. They found a piece of nullified bone beneath the spell that had somehow sucked the magic out of a Pillar.
Seiran shoved the plate aside, typed something into his phone and then vanished down the stairs for a minute before coming back with a stack of prints. Images from the site they’d found the body. He laid out the pictures on the counter until they lay in a circle, showing the whole symbol. “Does this look familiar to you?”
Con stared at it and realized it did. It was a smaller version of the one on the killing field. Fewer runes making up the edges, but the same basic symbol. Like a fast and dirty version. “The ley lines there weren’t crossed. Though there was one beneath the building. There are ley lines beneath the Fellowship building too. They aren’t uncommon, but I don’t know that there is for sure a link yet.”
“Would Hart know anything about these runes?”
“Has books on runes. I don’t know if he uses them or not.”
“Do you know what his power is?” Seiran asked. “I’ve never been able to get a read. Gabe doesn’t really know how to define it.”
“I don’t have any confirmation, but of the six elements, I suspect his power is energy, which is light related. Most of the males working for the Fellowship have light magic. The ability to store energy, build it, manipulate it, is rare, which makes Hart powerful. It’s thought to be the ability to manipulate all elements, but I’ve never actually seen it. His office feels like bugs on my skin. Power, even though most regular wards don’t bother me at all. Wind breezes through most of them.” Con thought maybe that was part of fae magic too, and why it blasted through his runes.
“Six?” Seiran seemed confused.
“Aren’t you supposed to be a teacher of magic?” Con asked.
“Dominion magic,” Seiran said grimly.
“Earth, water, wind, fire, light, and dark. The Dominion loops the last two together as spirit magic, but they are vastly different. There are six, and many sub abilities within each, like ice under water, and stone under earth. A Pillar is by definition a master of all the subdivisions. For example, Kelly can make snow from water, and you can turn things to stone. That’s the core of ancient magic principles.” Con traced the symbol for each found in most of the ancient texts in the air, giving them a bit of a glow of color as they set them in the typical circular pattern. Six at top level and four for each beneath, creating a wheel of defined runes.