A Life for a Life

To kill time until her meeting, Jess researched everything she could find on the diner, but there was nothing that stood out in their business or property records. Charlie continued searching for similar deaths with even less luck.

Both inspectors were happy when it was time for their meeting with the Librarian. Jess drove them several miles north to the giant building that housed the Library of Magical Collections and Awakenings.

So precious was the information and artifacts stored at the library that Norms couldn’t see it as anything more than a collection of abandoned warehouses. To any witch or other magical person, though, it was a giant, sprawling mansion the size of several city blocks. It was surrounded by a six-foot-high black iron fence that was little more than decoration compared to the large number of security spells embedded in the perimeter to keep out unwanted visitors.

The only way to gain access was through the main gate, which was open during daylight hours. Since it was summer, the hours were long. Visitors signed in with security at the gate and were required to stay on the path by foot to the front door. Once inside you entered a massive foyer that acted as the lobby, where more security required you to state your business and an escort librarian was assigned to be with you at all times. The large staff would attend you with individual research or small tour groups if you made an appointment ahead of time.

Jess had only been to the library a handful of times and most of those while she was attending the WISP training academy. Every time she went, though, the beauty of the interior took her breath away.

The lobby itself consisted of white marble flooring etched with gold, a wide-open staircase straight ahead, and a giant chandelier in the center that gave off as much light as a sunny day. There was a hallway going both left and right that led to massive rooms, ceilings reaching several stories high. In these rooms there were more books than anyone could hope to read in a lifetime, organized by subject on hand-carved bookshelves and lit by antique lamps and wall sconces.

If you went up the grand staircase, there were more rooms kept under lock and key that contained magical artifacts and objects of power, collected over centuries. Somewhere in all that splendor was also the living quarters for several of the staff that worked at the library. It took librarians years just to learn where everything was located.

Jess and Charlie paused when they entered to allow a hollow suit of armor carrying a stack of books to walk by, Charlie gaping after it. Having seen something similar on a previous visit, Jess just smirked. They waited in line to be assisted and looked around. Jess was especially entranced with a nearby wall, where several paintings were being redone. Redone as in, a paintbrush was floating by itself in front of the canvas and the painting changing completely with each stroke. One was transforming from a meadow landscape to a bowl of fruit while another was changing from the face of a dog to a portrait of a woman. There was no paint anywhere Jess could see.

Soon it was their turn and Jess and Charlie were assigned a meek-looking woman named Marci to escort them. She led them up the main stairs and down several different hallways until Jess was sure she was lost. She didn’t speak to them and her steps were nearly silent. Combine that with Marci’s small frame and Jess felt like a lumbering giant by comparison.

They turned a corner, only to be pressed up against the wall as a group of tourists pushed their way past. Five or six books came barreling through the air behind them, flapping open and close around the peoples’ heads. One book locked around a woman’s ponytail and pulled her to the ground before releasing her and flying away. Jess swore she could hear laughter coming from the books.

Marci waved her hand above her head, a pink glowing bracelet on her wrist. A faint pink mist spread from the bracelet and touched each of the flying books. They slammed closed and stacked themselves neatly on a nearby table. Another guide, a man, came around the corner and ushered the tour group in the direction Jess and Charlie had come from. Marci continued on as if nothing had happened. The inspectors followed.

Finally, Marci stopped in front of a wooden door that looked like a lot of the other doors they had passed and knocked twice. They heard a gruff “come in” and Marci opened the door, gesturing for them to enter. She didn’t follow but turned and walked away without a word. With a shrug to Charlie, Jess entered the room.

They walked into a large office. The walls were adorned with colorful landscape paintings that complimented an intricate blue rug that probably cost a fortune. A dark blue loveseat sat up against one wall and several tall lamps dotted the corners of the room, casting a soft glow. A big antique desk sat in the middle of the room covered in papers and stacks of books with two overstuffed chairs placed in front of it. The room was cluttered but cozy. There was also no one there.

Jess walked farther in and peered around, looking for the source of the voice that told them to enter. Charlie seemed unconcerned and had wandered off to one side, inspecting a strange artifact propped up on its own table.

“Is this the Sphere of Atlantis?” Charlie asked, leaning over a green globe about the size of a baseball.

“The what?” Jess asked, coming closer. The sphere looked like some kind of dark green stone but it was perfectly round, sitting on a raised iron stand. There were various symbols on it, etched in a dark yellow color. Maybe bronze. Charlie reached out to touch it when it floated off its stand and began to spin very slowly.

“That is exactly what that is. Very good, Inspector,” came another voice from behind them. Jess jumped and turned while Charlie continued circling the table, viewing the sphere from every side.

“The what?” Jess asked again. A thin man Jess recognized as Murphy Sanchez walked towards them from an open doorway that was not visible when first entering the room.

“The Sphere of Atlantis. You have heard of Atlantis, I presume?” Sanchez added with a smirk.

“I believe anyone over the age of five has,” Jess snapped back, then immediately regretted it. He raised his eyebrows until Jess muttered an apology.

The Librarian looked exactly as Jess remembered, only older. He wearing a brown tweed suit and owl glasses that made his eyes look freakishly large, which only enhanced the slightly crazed look Jess remembered from when she was a kid. Jess knew he was in his eighties but he looked older, hunched and fragile with fraying white hair. He peered at them like they were specimens under a microscope. Jess shifted but Charlie stared calmly back, unperturbed by the scrutiny.

“Unlike the story most humans still believe, Plato did not make Atlantis up. It existed as an island run by an Elvish colony, called the Mousiki tribe. They were a peaceful people, but their island was rich in resources not found elsewhere. Tired of having to defend themselves against invaders, they cast great magic and swallowed Atlantis into the sea. But they were not lost, merely isolated.” Sanchez grabbed a nearby book that was sitting open on the table beside the sphere. He held it up to them, showing an old-looking map of Atlantis. Charlie leaned closer for a better look while Jess tried not to fidget impatiently.

“Very few people are permitted to go there, but there are some. That is how artifacts like this one have made it to the outside world,” Sanchez said, gesturing to the sphere.

“It’s said that the Sphere of Atlantis was gifted to Alexander the Great and it gave him protection,” Charlie added. “That was how he was able to conquer so much land, until the magic was spent and no longer worked for him. Or so the story goes.”

“I’m not sure the validity of that story, but I do know it came into my possession a few years ago after it was found in an excavation in Egypt. When the markings were declared not Egyptian, it was sent to our library for analysis and determined to be Atlantean,” the Librarian said.

“How do you know that?” Jess asked, more to be polite than anything. This was interesting, but they had a case they needed to get back to. Besides, ancient artifacts weren’t her thing.

“Just because the humans don’t know Atlantis exists doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of records available to the magical community,” Charlie pointed out. Sanchez nodded approvingly. Jess supposed they had a point.

“It spins, but otherwise produces no magic. I have been studying it to try to figure out why,” Sanchez said.

“You have to make it spin the other way,” Charlie told him. She had one hand raised over the sphere and her eyes stared past them, pupils dilated. Librarian Sanchez looked at her with interest.

“How?” he asked. Charlie blinked and removed her hand.

“I have no idea.”

“Well, that’s more to go on than I had before. I believe the library is a better fit for you than being a cop, young lady,” Sanchez said.

Charlie smiled at him. “I am happy where I am for now, but thank you.” No one said anything after that until Jess grew uncomfortable.

“Well, anyway, um, I’m Inspector Jessica Baker and this is my partner Inspector Charlene Morgan. I believe you were expecting us?” Jess asked. They did have a job to do. Charlie tore herself away from the artifact and went to stand by Jess’s side.

“I’m Librarian Sanchez. On the phone you mentioned an unknown spell involved in your murder case. Tell me everything you know about it and quickly. I have other things to do,” Sanchez demanded, all business.

Jess and Charlie told him about their emaciated victims that somehow still needed killing with a knife, the imbalance in the universe that only a few select people were feeling and going temporarily mad from, the trails of magic Charlie had picked up on, and the black haze Jess could see around affected people. The Librarian stood there silently while they talked, never interrupting to ask questions or even offering them a seat.

Once they finished, he walked around his desk to the far corner where an enormous book sat on a pedestal at chest height. Brow furrowed in concentration, he flipped through several pages, scanning the text with a single finger down each one. Jess and Charlie exchanged glances, then turned back to wait.

Finally, he seemed to find what he was looking for because he tapped a spot twice and said something too low for them to catch. They could feel the magic in the spell, though. With a loud pop, a book appeared out of thin air less than six inches above the only cleared space on the Librarian’s desk. It landed with a soft thud as he turned to it and gestured for them to come closer. He skimmed through the book, paused on one page, and turned it so it faced them.

The left page featured a lot of text but on the right was a colored drawing that looked hand done by someone with great artistic skill. It showed a young boy lying flat on a raised altar, with pale skin and eyes closed, likely dead. Standing behind the altar was a young woman with flowing red hair, her hands raised with a knife in one hand and a book in another. In the background, a black cloud obscured what looked like a simple room with a window. At the base of the altar, red blood was splashed on a stone floor and rising from it was an eerie blue mist, vaguely humanoid in shape.

The Librarian pointed to the woman.

“This is Josefa, the Witch Queen. Have you heard of her?” he asked. They nodded. Every witch history class included a section on the Witch Queen. She lived thousands of years ago and was one of the first to suggest witches work together in a coven. Her village was invaded and it was only the combined powers of a coven that saved their people.

After that, she was revered and called a great queen to her people, but then her young son became terribly ill. It was said that she went crazy trying spell after spell to cure him and when he died, she broke completely. She lashed out at everyone and nearly destroyed the whole village before the other witches defeated her. Some theories claimed the Witch Queen’s rage and grief was one of the first instances that led to the fear of witches. Witches went into hiding to protect themselves, as other supernatural creatures had done for centuries already.

“As a punishment for her crimes against the village, Josefa was banished to a tiny rock of an island with most of her magic stripped from her. She was left with barely enough power to survive the harsh island conditions,” Sanchez said.

“After being defeated by the coven of witches, she went quietly, shut in within herself. Her only request was that the body of her dead son be brought with her so she could live close to his burial spot. The villagers weren’t without sympathy and agreed to this small request.” The Librarian tapped the picture with his finger.

“What they didn’t know was that Josefa still hadn’t given up on the idea of saving her son. She knew there were ways to bring back a dead body so she figured there must be some way to bring back a soul and that’s what she tried to do. Eventually she learned that by taking the life force of another, she could force it into her dead son. The consequences were terrible.” He flipped the page to reveal another picture, a horrifying one with a ghostly figure contorted in pain.

“A living soul will never inhabit another person’s body. It is also not meant to leave its own body. The result is a confused entity without a life source that will immediately start to fade away or try to attack itself to get back into its proper body. Unfortunately, even seconds outside the body can deplete a soul significantly and if it does enter the body again, it will suck out every bit of life in every cell to try to refuel itself. I believe this is why your corpses have nothing but skin left on them.”

“And the imbalance people are experiencing?” Charlie asked.

“Ripping out souls is an imbalance,” Sanchez told her. “It disrupts the natural balance all around us. In Josefa’s time, the villagers also felt the effects and came to confront her about it. In the end, Josefa did not survive.” Jess stared down as Sanchez flipped back to the picture of Josefa and her son. It was a sad story, more than she had ever learned in school. All they were taught was that Josefa started out good but went insane after the death of her son and was driven away by the very witches she once banded together.

“I’m not sure why only a select few are feeling the imbalance, but I suspect they came into close contact with the one responsible for this. It is possible that his or her own magic has been thrown off-kilter with the dark magic they are performing and it is reacting with other people’s magic.” They were silent as Jess and Charlie absorbed the Librarian’s words.

“How would anyone know how to perform the spells the Witch Queen used?” Jess asked.

“That I cannot tell you. There are rumors of a dark magic spell book created by the Witch Queen herself, but they have never been substantiated.”

“Is there any way to trace it back to the one doing this?” Charlie asked him.

“There’s no specific spell or method that I know of,” Sanchez answered, shaking his head. “Personally, I would try tracking down the imbalance if you can. But I can’t offer you much more than that at this point. I’ll keep thinking on it.”

“Thank you, Mr. Sanchez,” Charlie said politely. She handed him a business card from her pocket. “If you think of anything else, give me a call.” Sanchez pocketed the card.

“I’ll get someone to show you out...” he began when there was a loud rumble, like thunder, and someone screamed.

“That sounds familiar,” Jess stated with a grim face. The three of them raced out of the room. Sanchez took the lead, but it wasn’t until several hallways later when they re-entered the lobby that they finally saw what the commotion was about.

A man was in the middle of the cavernous room, crouched down as low as he could go while still standing, with his arms over his head. His eyes were squeezed tightly closed and he kept clapping his hands and weeping at the same time. Every time his hands came together, a loud boom and a minor shock wave blasted from them, sending the five or so people trying to get to him flying backward. Everyone else had either fled or were crouched down behind anything they could for protection.

Charlie and Jess took only a second to process the scene before they jumped into action. Splitting up, Charlie grabbed those nearest to her who were hiding and pushed them towards Librarian Sanchez, who shoved them through a concealed doorway to safety. Jess circled around until she was facing the man in the middle of the lobby, waving her badge at those trying to help so they would back up. She stopped a respectable distance away so that even though the shock waves hit her, they weren’t enough to push her back.

“Sir!” Jess called out to him. “I’m with the Witch Inspectors. I can help you if you’ll just calm down for a minute!” But the man either couldn’t or wouldn’t stop his clapping. He didn’t even open his eyes. Cursing under her breath, Jess centered herself and visualized her garden of magic.

Jess pulled a ruby stone off one of her magic rings and in an instant, it created a circle similar in size and shape to that of a hula-hoop. Whispering a spell activated the hoop until it glowed a brilliant gold. It was meant as an immobilizer, locking down around whoever she threw it on. Often the hard part was you had to get it around the person and they weren’t just going to stand there and let you do that.

Luckily Jess wasn’t alone. Charlie had got the room mostly cleared and came to stand by Jess. She took the hoop from her partner and cast another spell herself, giving it the gift of aim so a single toss anywhere near their target and it would correct itself to go around the man. It was very difficult to lay a second spell over an already enchanted object and have it work properly so Jess was impressed Charlie could do that. Assuming it worked of course.

“I’m going to hold him, you throw it,” Jess said. If she wondered how Jess was going to hold down a man thirty feet away, Charlie didn’t say. She just gave the affirmative and prepared to cast the hoop.

Jess visualized vines in her mind, but this time they needed a little more substance. Magic was normally invisible until it interacted with an object, but today a light green smoke flowed from Jess’s outstretched hands. It formed into ghostly-looking vines, complete with healthy leaves, as it trailed across the room towards the crouched man. He continued to clap his hands, but the shock waves had no effect on the smoky plants, save for slight pauses in their movement that had more to do with the waves hitting Jess.

The vines reached the man and wrapped around his wrists. They were so gentle at first that he didn’t notice, but when he went to clap his hands again, they grabbed on tighter and stopped him. The abrupt force on his wrists caused him to open his eyes and stare in shock at the green apparition, but Charlie didn’t give him time to think about it. She tossed the hoop like a giant frisbee and it landed right over the man’s head.

Though it was light when Charlie threw it, the hoop now appeared to weigh a ton as it pushed the man’s raised arms down and shrunk until they were pinned to his sides. The man lost his balance and fell, rolling around and wailing on the marble floor. Jess and Charlie rushed over to him.

“It’s not right, it’s not right. Make it stop!” the man moaned. Jess pulled off one of her knockout spells on her ring and gently placed the sticky sphere onto the man’s head. He was out in an instant. Jess was grim as she pulled out her phone and called Teddy.

“We’ve got another one, Captain.”