Modern Age Online

Kaleb, Jar-lock and Vivienne stood before Professor Malcolm’s huge office door. They had already tried the doorknob, resulting in a slight stinging sensation in Kaleb’s hand. Now Jar-lock was standing before the door, chin in hand, deep in thought. Vivienne was waving her wand around the frame of the door while Kaleb was trying to figure something else out.

“It just doesn’t make sense.” Kaleb said as he walked from one window to the other.

The long hallway where Malcolm’s office sat was interspersed with squat square windows. Kaleb had been putting his head against the windows to either side of Malcolm’s office. Hoping for a way in from the outside. But the dimensions of the building weren’t adding up.

“Hmm?” Jar-lock made a noise, showing he was barely listening.

But Kaleb pushed on. “There’s no space for an office on this side of the building. It would be like a great bulbous square sticking out of a flat wall. He has to have magic’d a portal or something.”

“No.” Vivienne stated emphatically. “All professors have to have offices on the grounds of the school. It’s in the school bylaws.”

“Yeah, and everyone always abides by the law.” Kaleb muttered as he paced back to the window and used his magic sight.

But the building stayed gray and mundane. There were no massive spells or magic concealing a room on the outside of the building. His eyes began to sting as he squinted to try to see what he was missing. But all he got was a headache between his eyes. Grunting, Kaleb turned back to his two friends.

“Maybe he has some kind of special exemption for being the head of Demonology or something? Didn’t Igraine say he led the Demon Hunters? So that probably comes with special privileges, right?”

Vivienne stopped pointing her wand at the door and spun on him. Annoyed expression on her face. “Maybe, but there are no spells or enchantments on the door. Nothing to indicate any amount of spellwork going into the door.”

“That’s cause it’s not a door.” Jar-lock said, still looking at the obvious door.

Kaleb walked next to his large friend and peered at the large wooden door to Malcolm’s office. Not seeing anything, he turned back to Jar-lock. “Yeah, can you explain that to the rest of the class?”

Vivienne moved next to them and also started studying the wall and door. Jar-lock raised a hand and did something with his magic. Kaleb couldn’t see what was happening, but he felt the magic tides in the air shift. The Jar-lock was flung against the far wall. Kaleb and Vivienne jumped back as the big mage slammed against the wall and caught himself on wobbly legs. Vivienne immediately started casting some kind of spell on Jar-lock as Kaleb clenched his teeth and tried his magic vision again. But nothing stood out as he scanned the wall and door.

“You okay?” Kaleb said over his shoulder as he turned off his sight and rubbed his eyes.

“Yeah. Magical backlash from trying to disenchant the wall. Slapped the hell out of me.”

“So that means there is something here, right?”

Vivienne huffed as her spell finished. “Not necessarily. It could just be the normal protections on a professor’s office. I mean, they don’t want students wandering in there.”

“Yeah, they might learn something.” Kaleb snarked as he tapped on the door.

A hollow wooden sound echoed on the other side of the door, and Kaleb sighed. Turning back to the others, he said. “I think we are going to have to call another teacher or something.”

Jar-lock shook his head. “No. I think I know what I did wrong. Just give me a second.”

“Fill us in before you try it, Jar. That way, we know how to help.” Vivienne said.

“Yeah. Good idea. Okay, so first, I think there’s an illusion enchantment on the wall to hide the door and make us think that this section of wall is where the door is. So the door is in this hallway, just not here. I am going to try to disenchant the spell again. You two just watch the wall and see if you can find the source of the spell.”

“The source?” Kaleb asked.

“It will be a sort of metaphysical anchor on the magical plane.” Vivienne explained.

Kaleb nodded slowly as he tried to wrap his head around the concept. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for. But a magical anchor was probably something like a power source. Jar-lock and Vivienne stared at him, clearly aware that he didn’t get it, but he waved them off. Vivienne shrugged and waved her wand at the opposite wall. A large transparent bubble flowed out of her wand and stuck to the wall. Jar-lock gave her a grateful smile and turned back to the door.

Kaleb started to move closer as Jar-lock raised both his hands at the door this time. But Kaleb slipped on the rug in the hallway, missing the shifting magic in the air. But he got to hear Jar-lock grunt in pain and the collide with Vivienne’s bubble with a wet splat. Kaleb stared angrily at the carpet as Jar-lock and Vivienne collected themselves. But something at the edge of the carpet, where it met the wall, caught his eye.

“Hey! Is this what I think it is?” Kaleb asked, pointing at the scrunched up carpet.

“What? You mean the carpet?” Vivienne asked as she and Jar-lock joined him.

Kaleb rolled his eyes and pulled the edge of the carpet back. Vivienne hissed in disgust as Jar-lock pushed closer. A dark red line was drawn into the wood and seemed to head further under the long hall carpet. Jar-lock wrenched the carpet from Kaleb’s hand and yanked the carpet away from the wall. Kaleb helped roll the carpet up as Vivienne and Jar-lock studied what was underneath. A large sigil was drawn onto the wood floor beneath the carpet. It was old and discolored, but Kaleb was sure it was drawn in blood.

“That’s not good, right? Using blood as a medium for rune-work?” Kaleb asked as he kicked the carpet against the far wall.

“It’s not unheard of,” Jar-lock answered, studying the sigil.

“But it is most definitely frowned upon.” Vivienne added.

“Is it animal blood?”

“Would that make it better!?”

Kaleb raised his hand at the angry woman. “No. I’m just guessing at a body count here. This is either three people or a shitload of animals. Each presents their own types of problems. Like how the fuck did he do this in a large hallway of a magic school without anyone noticing?”

“The outer sigil is a turn-away spell.” Jar-lock answered, pointing to the outer edge of the circular sigil. “He wrote that one down first and then reinforced it with blood.”

“Is this the anchor thing y’all were looking for?”

Jar-lock and Vivienne both nodded as they stared down at the sigil drawn onto the floor. Jar-lock raised a hand as blue power gathered in his fist. With a thought, the mage flung his power down at the floor. Kaleb covered his eyes as he expected something explosive to happen. But instead, all the blood on the floor evaporated and Kaleb felt an almost sigh of relief come from the air. It felt like all the pressure in the hallway was being released.

“Now, why didn’t that toss you into the ceiling?” Kaleb asked.

Jar-lock stood and brushed off his knees. “Because only the illusion spell was protected.”

“Essentially, instead of dealing with the lock, we just cut the power to the door.” Vivienne explained.

“And whatever else the sigil was powering.”

Kaleb raised an eyebrow. “Well, that sounds ominous.”

Jar-lock shrugged his massive shoulders and looked back to the hallway wall. Kaleb joined him and was surprised to find that the hallway had shifted a bit. They were standing in front of a wall with a few pictures on it. Down to their left was the door to Malcolm’s office. Jar-lock smiled smugly before marching up to the door and cautiously putting a hand on the doorknob. Testing it, he turned to Kaleb and Vivienne.

“Okay, this is the office of a powerful magic professor who had no qualms about using blood magic. So everyone keep your eyes out. We cut the power to his office. So if anything was chained up in there or any spells were active, this could be a shitshow.”

Kaleb nodded and drew his pistols as Vivienne raised her wand and got ready. Jar-lock made a fist, summoning fire to his knuckles and shouldered the door open. The three of them burst into the room at the same time. Kaleb swept left as Jar-lock took the center position and Vivienne went right. Immediately, his leg slammed into a stack of books and Kaleb had to catch himself. Both Jar-lock and Vivienne gave shouts of alarm as well.

Kaleb raised his pistols and scanned the left wall. From the door to the wall, the floor was full with stacks books. Even the left most wall itself was half-full with books stacked haphazardly. The other half of the wall was decorated with the skulls of many creatures. He couldn’t identify most of them. Judging by the horns on a lot of them, Kaleb guessed they were demonic in nature.

“It was human blood.” Vivienne growled from behind him.

Kaleb spun and saw that the tall blonde woman was standing over a small pile of corpses. Two teenage boys and a girl were thrown casually in the corner. Kaleb finally noticed the festering smell in the air as he spotted the decomposing bodies. Vivienne looked equal parts angry and like she wanted to throw up. Jar-lock took in the sight, but ignored it as he marched to the large black desk at the center of the room.

Kaleb navigated his way through the books and joined Jar-lock at the desk. It was full of books, beakers and loose papers. He spotted a large ornate dagger at the edge of the desk, but Kaleb didn’t touch it. The thing’s black blade and grotesque-looking handle didn’t exactly scream ‘safe'. Instead, Kaleb walked to the other side of the desk and started looking for drawers. Which were easy to find, as one was bleeding.

“Uh…” Kaleb said, pointing at the offending drawer.

Jar-lock moved around the desk and looked at the drawer. Sucking in a breath, he raised his hand as Kaleb readied his gun. Sharing a nod, Kaleb moved to the drawer and grabbed the handle with his metal hand. With a yank, Kaleb jumped back and opened the drawer. A veritable flood of blood and body parts sprang forth from the open drawer as Kaleb and Jar-lock skidded backward. Jar-lock swept his hand over the tide, casting a blue wave that burned away the blood. But the body parts remained. Kaleb spotted a rush of lips, eyeballs, tongues and various other small bits in the wave of blood.

“What the fuck!” Kaleb yelled as he waved his gun across the pile of parts.

Jar-lock hit the back wall and jerked to a stop as a pile of tongues flopped at his feet. He looked up at Kaleb, shocked and appalled.

“I think there was a spatial enchantment on the drawer. When we cut the power, the enchantment failed and…”

“Blood tsunami.” Kaleb nodded as he glanced down at the mayhem.

Thanks to Jar-lock, most of the blood was gone, but the small body parts remained. Kaleb collected himself as Vivienne cautiously moved to their side of the room. Jar-lock tried to get in her way, but it was unsuccessful as she side-stepped quickly and looked at the gruesome display. Her face rapidly contorted through several emotions. From revulsion to sadness to pure rage. She raised her wand; the tip glowing red, but Jar-lock stopped her.

“We need to find out where he went!” Jar-lock said as Vivienne glared at him.

Vivienne swallowed loudly and nodded. “How did the teachers miss this?”

Kaleb and Jar-lock shrugged. The sigil on the hallway floor was pretty obvious. But Kaleb guessed if no one had been looking for it, it might be hard to find. How many people were going to question a college professor of demonology? But that didn’t account for the other powerful professors. Kaleb pondered the problem as Jar-lock went back to the desk.

Quickly and cautiously, he ripped open each drawer. But none disgorged another wave of blood and body parts. Instead, they found more books and papers. Jar-lock’s hands stopped on a particular book with a red cover and he seemed hesitant to open it. As Kaleb moved closer, he realized why. It didn’t have a red cover; it was a bloody cover that seemed to continually drip blood. Even when Jar-lock wiped it away, more blood seeped out of the cover and covered his hands.

“Of course it’s a cursed book.” Vivienne sighed, rubbing her temples. “It was always going to be a cursed book.”

“Is there anything else?” Kaleb asked.

Jar-lock looked over everything on the desk and shook his head. “The rest is surprisingly mundane. Class records, test scores, student evaluations, and the like.”

“Well, let’s grab it all and get the fuck out of here. Between the smell and the décor, I really want to be somewhere else.”

“Agreed.” Jar-lock said, gathering everything up.

He and Vivienne hurried out of the room as Kaleb gave it a once over. The smell of death was growing stronger. He stepped around the desk and kicked a drawer that had been pulled out. The drawer flipped onto its back, revealing a small vial taped to its underside. Leaning down, Kaleb yanked the vial of blood off and examined it. The black liquid inside roiled as his hand touched the vial and Kaleb brought it up to his eyes. The liquid sloshed and bubbled ominously. Kaleb gave the vial a tiny shake, which sent the liquid careening into its glass prison. He was about to put the vial in his pocket when the liquid shot into the side of the vial, a tiny face appearing in the liquid. Its formless face seemed to scream, and Kaleb was sure he could hear it faintly through the glass.

Holding the vial in front of him, Kaleb hurried from the room.