Chapter 3 – Reassess

Lucy was worried.

Once again she had been woken up by Callum stirring from the bed in the middle of the night, and she peered blearily after him as he headed to the bathroom. Probably for antacids, which he’d been chewing down like candy as of late. Alcohol was saved for special occasions, but the current method of coping wasn’t helpful either.

“You okay?” She asked, when he came back to bed.

“Just heartburn,” he said, crawling under the sheets.

“You gotta let things go,” she said, reaching for him.

“Yeah, I know,” he said, snuggling up to her. She squeaked in indignation from his cold feet. “It’s just— there’s so much that comes with what we’re doing. We saved a lot of people, but how many didn’t we save? We took out these vampires, but there are others, most of which we don’t know anything about, that are just as bad or worse. Plus it wasn’t like the vamps set up the trafficking rings. Not all the monsters are supernatural, but I’m just one man even if I am a mage. I have a responsibility, but I just can’t be a big hero.”

“S’way too heavy for this late at night, big man,” she said with a yawn. There were too many cobwebs in her brain to grapple with that kind of worry. “But I tell you what, you can’t hold the world on your shoulders. Too much a responsibility for one man.”

“I suppose,” Callum said unenthusiastically. “It still seems like it’s my fault that things are starting to happen.”

“Believe me, they were happening long before you came by.” Lucy turned and rolled overtop of him, nestling her head in against his neck. His arms came up around her and she could feel him relax. “Let’s get some sleep,” she muttered. “You’re gonna be useless tomorrow if you stay up.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, but drifted off again only a few moments later.

His maudlin mood seemed to have dissipated when they got up in the morning. Working clearly helped, at least when it came to the garden and the metal craft shed that he was putting up outside. It amused her, considering how many mages disdained physical labor and even used telekinesis foci instead of their hands for ordinary tasks.

She stretched out on the couch with her laptop, attending to her own business while he worked outside. Some freelancing online, where she’d reestablished her bona fides under a different name, the investments she’d made with the money from salvaging, and catching up with friends and contacts. Mostly in Chester’s pack.

Internet access was no longer an issue. She’d anonymously rented a piece of an office in Albania and Callum had set one of the portal anchors to connect there. It required a bit of a booster since it went through the nexus, but the Wi-Fi was good enough.

Lucy mused over the issues while she worked, since it was obvious that things couldn’t continue with Callum being some kind of unaffiliated enforcer. He was physically and magically capable of it, but he didn’t have the temperament. Not that Lucy was any real expert, but she talked with Lisa all the time and in some ways Alpha Chester’s position was analogous.

The thought made her dial up her friend. Partly just to talk, but partly because Lucy and Lisa had ended up being the official contact point between Callum and Chester. If there was something that needed passing in either direction they managed it, though that wasn’t really all that common. Mostly they just chatted.

“Hey Lucy,” Lisa’s voice came. Her friend usually used a headset, but Lucy could still hear thumps in the background. Probably in the pack gym then, with shifters sparring.

“Hey Lisa, anything new?”

“Actually there is! We had a representative from the Guild of Enchanting come by. Partly to establish relations with Chester, but they also wanted to talk to Callum.” Lisa didn’t sound concerned. “Apparently they had business matters they wanted to bring up.”

“Huh.” Lucy said, and jotted down the number that Lisa gave her. She knew that the Guild of Enchanting wasn’t fully part of GAR, but she wouldn’t have thought they were so separate that they’d be making independent deals with Chester already. Nor could she imagine what business they had with Callum, other than the deadly kind. But if Lisa was passing on the message they were at least moderately polite.

“I’ll tell him,” she said. “Is it urgent?”

“Not that I know of,” she replied. “Tell you what is urgent, though. You and him. Can’t keep putting it off.”

“I know, I know,” Lucy said with some exasperation. Lisa had been nagging more than was comfortable, but she did have a point. Not that Lucy didn’t enjoy spending time with the big man but if they were going to have anything more it couldn’t wait forever. “I honestly think he doesn’t know what it’s like to feel secure anymore. Not that I blame him after the past couple years. I’ll work on it.”

Lisa, mercifully, let it drop after that, and they just talked and gossiped about what was going on. Lisa’s grandkids, Lucy’s work, Callum’s garden. The scuttlebutt out of GAR and out of the Hargrave-Taisen alliance, which didn’t yet have an official name. Chester’s moves to cement his authority over the Midwest region, at least when it came to supernaturals.

“One moment Lisa, he’s back,” Lucy said, still on the phone when Callum returned. He smelled of damp soil and wet grass, and leaned down to give her a kiss on his way to the kitchen. Lucy grabbed his wrist before he slipped away again and he looked at her with eyebrows raised.

“Something up?”

“Lisa says the Guild of Enchanting wants to talk to you,” Lucy told him.

“I bet they do,” he said, his face smoothing into that neutral mask he used when he was contemplating possible trouble.

“We can just use a box to talk to them,” she suggested. “Heck, we can even put it somewhere with Wi-Fi access so you can clean up the vis before they get there.”

“That is a good idea. I suppose there’s no harm in hearing what they have to say.” He rubbed at his forehead, leaving a smear of dirt from his fingers. “I guess we can set it up. Do you have their contact information?”

“Got a phone number,” she said. “I guess they’ve got someone plugged into mundane stuff. I’m pretty sure they also have a presence online but there’s no telling who pays attention to that.”

“I imagine they wouldn’t want to be caught talking to me,” Callum said. “Sure, set it up.”

“On it, big man,” she said.

“I can’t believe you still call him that,” Lisa said with amusement, as Callum went to wash.

“Hard to think of him as anything else,” Lucy said. “Not after he rescued me and all.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Lisa said. After a little more discussion they hung up and she dialed the number from the Guild of Enchanting. She had been half expecting to be answered by some kind of secretary, but after a few rings the voice that answered stated a name that Lucy actually recognized.

“This is Lorenzo Rossi,” a heavily accented male voice said. “Mister Wells?”

“This is Lucy, on behalf of Wells.” She didn’t want to use her family name, but it hadn’t quite reached the point of taking Callum’s, so she just had the one name for the moment. “You wanted to set up a meeting?” It surprised her that the actual head of the Guild of Enchanting was answering a phone directly, but maybe they really wanted to talk to Callum. She couldn’t imagine the big man waiting on whatever layers of bureaucracy normally insulated Rossi from ordinary people.

“Yes, as soon as possible.” Rossi was brusque. “It is a matter of some urgency,” he added, contradicting Lisa, but Lucy imagined if it had waited this long then it wasn’t really time-sensitive.

“The best way to do it would be a public place in the mundane world, and we’ll attend through a tablet,” Lucy said. “He doesn’t trust any mages enough to meet in person, for obvious reasons.”

“I see,” Rossi said after a short pause. “I suppose that is sufficient. What do you suggest?”

The easiest solution would just have been to lean on Chester again, but Callum didn’t like relying on the shifters more than he had to. Which Lucy found a little silly, but she knew when to pick her battles when it came to his paranoia. It was hardly difficult to set up a meeting in a business incubator conference room over in California for the next day.

They made their preparations beforehand, of course, flying in with a drone and depositing the tablet hours before the meeting was supposed to occur. She could only watch through the cameras, on the tablet and on the drone, but Callum could see – or sense – everything. Lucy could scarcely imagine what that was like, but Callum mostly handled it fine. There were moments his eyes went distant, when he was clearly paying attention to something else, but for the most part he focused on the real world.

She didn’t see Rossi arrive, thanks to glamour, but Callum warned her he was flying in and after a moment he appeared on the cameras, a distinguished gentleman with dark hair and Mediterranean features. He came with three outriders, clear subordinates, carrying polished leather cases that were too small and too wide to be briefcases. Sample cases, maybe. They walked into the conference room and Lucy nodded to Callum, turning on the video link with the tablet.

“Mister Rossi?” Callum spoke, as it didn’t seem that Rossi noticed the tablet was on after a few seconds, holding a muttered conversation with one of his companions.

“Ah!” Rossi said, completely unflustered. Lucy studied him through the tablet camera as he seated himself, and he didn’t look very stressed or worried. Grave at most, so she didn’t think it was trouble. Or it was a lot of trouble, and they thought they had something of enough power to not worry about putting pressure on Callum. “Mister Wells?”

“That’s me,” Callum said, face set. Lucy was pretty sure he didn’t realize he did that. His normal face, when he talked to her or actually relaxed, was quite normal, but when he had to deal with the mages or other authority figures there was a hard, intimidating cast to his features. Personally, she felt it matched the moniker he’d gotten, and that he was the only one who thought The Ghost was a silly name.

“I actually have a rather large number of items,” Rossi said, apparently friendly, though everything Lucy had heard about the man was that he was a hard businessman. “But I’ll start with the first one. Could you please stop spreading Guild enchantment secrets everywhere?”

Callum blinked. Lucy stifled a giggle. Though Rossi probably wouldn’t be able to tell, especially since he only had the tablet to look at, behind Callum’s mask he was completely thrown.

“I wasn’t aware that I was,” he said stiffly.

“The teleportation pads you’ve been providing,” Rossi said, a touch impatiently. “All that work just out in the open! I know you don’t have any idea how much time and effort went into perfecting every single one of those designs but you could have at least covered it up!”

“That is fair,” Callum said after a moment. Lucy raised her eyebrows at him. She hadn’t expected that reaction; normally the big man flatly ignored any attempts to exert authority over him. “That is a reasonable change to make, though you understand I am constrained by my circumstances. I’m somewhat surprised you’re not asking me to desist altogether.”

“Yes, well,” Rossi waved it away. “As you say, you’re constrained by your circumstances. It’s obvious you have the power and expertise to examine and recreate enchantments, and after seeing your work I’m hardly going to start making demands.” That, despite already having made one.

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“Indeed,” Callum said. “It hasn’t worked well for anyone else so far.”

“Exactly.” Rossi leaned forward toward the tablet. “I’d rather work with you. It’s obvious you don’t have any schooling in how to properly perform enchantment but you have some natural skill and insight. Like those tiles we found at your old place.” Callum didn’t react to that, even though Lucy felt her mouth turn downward of its own accord.

“We’ve looked at them and think there are some very promising applications. What a fascinating idea. However did you come up with it?” Callum smiled at that, very suddenly.

“That wasn’t my idea,” he said. “That was Lucy’s.” He beckoned toward her, and she joined him in front of the laptop camera, feeling somewhat self-conscious. “We work together on enchanting,” he continued.

“Oh,” said Rossi in obvious surprise. “Very well, then. I would like to extend both of you a business opportunity. I know I can’t stop you from enchanting, and you may not understand how limited our access to spatial mages is. Archmage Duvall and her apprentices make themselves available to a certain extent, but they all have demands on their time.” Callum took a breath and leaned back.

“So you want to, what, sell my enchantments?”

“Not exactly. Your work is, pardon my bluntness, barely passable. At least as it stands. But perhaps we could provide instruction — and more importantly you could provide portions of enchantments that only a spatial mage could provide. I assume you, or rather Lucy, would want the proceeds from properly registering your interlocking enchantment design with the tiles.”

“In short, legitimacy,” Callum said, and glanced at her. Lucy nodded firmly. Someone in the mage camp actually taking them seriously was a new one for her, and she thought it was a fantastic idea. The big man would probably have a lot of caveats and carefuls, but moving out of the black market would be great.