Going back to sleep is NOT an option

Lee came up from the living level, combing her damp hair as she wandered barefoot to the couch and settled on the arm. "What did I miss?"

Luc grunted, his attention focused on the transmutation of his sigils. "Mr. Cryptic wants to investigate a prospective new member."

The corner of Lee's mouth quirked upward as she glanced from Luc to Liam. "Lover's quarrel?"

Liam grinned at the stiff, controlled motions of Luc's brush. "He wouldn't blow me."

Lee returned his grin but rolled her eyes. "He wouldn't be any good... far too stiff jawed to allow for any prolonged fun."

Luc smacked down his brush and turned to glare at them. "I'll go get cleaned up."

Liam waved dismissively as Luc descended the scaffold. "Take your time. From what I can tell, the boy stays fairly localized. You won't be meeting him directly anyway, so you don't have to pretty up." Liam's grin widened as Luc ground his teeth as he left the common area for his rooms.

Lee shook her head. "You'd think after two years he'd be used to us by now."

"Oh he is," Liam replied, "and I think he's more frustrated that we still tease him rather than the actual things we say." He took another swig from his water and rose from the couch. "Two years ago he'd have retreated to his sanctum for the day to bring some order back to his world."

Lee gestured about the room, indicating the every increasing complexity of sigils. "He doesn't have enough order in his world?"

Liam chuckled. "With two such chaotic mages as ourselves in his life, absolutely not."

Lee frowned. "It used to be three."

Liam sighed, and putting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently. "Connor has his own path to follow. He will return if here is where he needs to be."

Lee nodded, and visible shook off her momentary regret. "Who are we going to see?

Liam shrugged. "I don't know who he is, though I know he's a he and works with mechanisms... not technocratic, or one of the adepts... I don't believe he's been formally trained."

Lee frowned. "Untrained, unguided awakened are dangerous to themselves and others. Has the technocracy found him yet?"

Liam returned to the kitchen shaking his head. "Not that I can tell. He appears to work mostly with mechanical devices, like engines and such. His power hasn't manifested in hypertech -- yet."

"A potential Son of Ether then?"

"That's my guess," Liam agreed. "We need to make contact before someone else does." Liam frowned. "I think the only reason he hasn't been picked up is the unstable state of the Technocratic Union. They have fractured, and the power struggle within the ranks has turned their efficient management of everything into a bureaucratic black hole." Liam's gaze traveled the room. "That's probably why we haven't been discovered and eliminated... they haven't noticed one of their old strongholds has been recycled by the opposition."

Lee frowned. "I thought Luc's friend took care of that for us."

Liam shrugged, walking over to the scaffolding. "Sure, she broke into their systems and erased records of this base from the net... but that doesn't mean they didn't have offline files."

"We really need an adept in our cabal," Lee mused.

"Possibly, but I think we are safer being off the grid completely. We have our own power, water and food. The technocracy has very little by which to detect us, let alone infiltrate our systems. An adept would want to either have a satellite link or bring in a hard wire... either of those could be back-doored." Liam swept his hand at the sigils. "And we've had enough problems with umbral incursions without having to maintain security from the virtual web."

Lee shrugged, getting off the couch and heading for the stairs. "So, what's the plan?"

"You need your jeep maintenance'd."

Lee looked back at him, her eyebrow raised. "I do?"

He nodded grimly. "You know how unhandy and clueless you are about such things... you need a mechanically inclined man to manage such things for you... you delicate lotus flower."

Lee rolled her eyes. "Do we really have to lean on the trope so heavily?"

Liam smiled. "No... you're welcome to improvise as you see fit. I just thought I'd set the scene... at least from the clueless man's point of view."

Lee's smile matched his. "I can handle that"

* * *

Luc watched the jeep drive off before turning and walking into Valhalla Brews. The coffee shop-taproom was an island of originality in the river of plebeian businesses surrounding Missouri Valley College. Though he would have preferred to meet the mechanimage himself, he knew his presence at the garage would have been more incongruous than the presence of a sophisticated, metropolitan coffee shop in this backward town. Still, he could keep an eye on the situation in his own way.

Obtaining a large mug of tea, he moved to a window table and settled into the comfortable seat. Arranging his tablet on the table, he took a sip of his tea and put on his glasses. With a force of will, he pushed magic into the formula drawn onto his lenses and the black sigils flickered for a moment before fading from view. Though by all outward appearances he was looking at his tablet screen, the view through the lenses showed trees and buildings moving past Lee's jeep. He tapped his headset. "I'm sync'd up."

"How's the view, any flaws?" Liam asked absently from the passenger seat while Lee drove.

Luc turned his head, looking up and down slowly and deliberately. "No, though I only have views from the windshield, passenger and driver windows, and the headlamps. It would have been so much easier had the Jeep had chrome fenders." Luc blinked for a moment as he returned his gaze forward. "Oh, and through the mirrors..."

Liam nodded and Lee glanced at the mirrors, confirming that she could still use them. "What about sound?"

Luc frowned, taking a sip of his tea. "No."

Liam raised an eyebrow at Lee. "Spirit sight? Prime sight?"

Luc's frown deepened. "No." Sighing, he took another sip of his tea. "I didn't think about that."

Lee grinned at Liam. "We should have taken more time preparing for this."

"I suppose we could do that."

Lee nodded. "Mushu can scout that for us." The spirit dragon faded into view, looking at her through the steering wheel. "You hear that Mush?" Mushu raised an indignant eyebrow at her before turning around and looking out the windshield, ignoring her existence. Lee rolled her eyes at Liam. "He'll do it."

They traveled about ten minutes from the campus and pulled into a mixed use neighorhood which had seen better days. Liam tapped the dashboard. "Let me out here. The garage is around the next corner."

Lee pulled over and Liam stepped out. She leaned over before he closed the door. "What do we want done?"

Liam shrugged. "Full fluid change, engine, tire, brake check? You know, preventative for people who can't find a dip-stick."

Mushu's tail twitched and Lee laughed. "Like the one holding open the door?"

"Ha, ha." Liam closed the door and stepped back.

Lee turned the corner and spotted Joe's Garage as Mushu faded from view. One car was waiting outside, either to be worked on or having been worked on, and another was in one of the three bays. Lee pulled up and parked before the office. She smiled at the old man who sat behind the counter as she walked in. "Do you do regular maintenance?"

Joe nodded, eyeing her prospectively. "Yep. What you need?"

Lee shrugged, infusing her movements with disinterest. "Fluid change, check the rest?"

He smiled."Sure thing."

"Today?"

Joe's smile went a little crooked, but he looked passed her into the garage and eyed the legs pushed out from under the car. The boy could do it without a problem. "Sure thing, miss?"

Lee smiled. "Emerson." Joe's eyebrow rose sceptically and Lee added, "Chinese mother, American father."

"Well Miss Emerson, give us a few hours... probably four." He slid a service agreement with her requested maintenance marked on it. "If you have a cell, just write it in and I'll call you when we're done." He looked out the office window. "Do you have a ride?"

Lee shook her head, taking the contract and filling in her information. "I'll walk."

It looked as if Joe would object, but he kept his opinion to himself. "Suit yourself." He nodded toward the way she'd come. "Best to walk towards the college." He took the keys from her and clipped them to the contract.

"Thanks." Lee smiled again and stepped outside. She walked slowly, peeking into the garage as she went. She saw a girl with dirty blonde hair sitting on a stool near a tool kit reading a ragged book. She also noticed what looked like the back of a toy robotic dog just beyond the front tire of the car. Overall clad legs ending in hiking boots stook out from under the car.

"Monkey wrench," came mumbled from below the car.

The girl reached into the tool kit without really looking and pulled out a wrench. She dropped it into the outstretched hand without looking away from her book.

Lee watched for a few moments and felt Mushu climb down her and scamper into the bay. She shrugged and turned away, walking in the direction of the college. She did slow, small motions with her hands and arms, ocassionally taking a precisely timed step diagonally left or right in coordination with her hands. Her attention split as she walked, part of her senses remained at a point within the garage as she maintained enough positional awareness to walk safely down the sidewalk.

"The mechanimage must be guy in the garage," Lee said conversationally, "he has a robotic dog."

"A mechanimal?" Luc shifted in his seat. "I can't see that from here. Is it a magickal construct?" 

"Mushu is fascinated with it, so it is at least a construct... maybe a familiar." Lee found a tree along her walk and paused, leaning against it to put most of her focus toward her distant viewing.

"Technocratic?" Luc frowned, sipping his now luke warm tea.

"No," Lee replied, frowning as she tried to focus her point of view upon the metal creature. "It looks more automaton than cyborg or synthetic life form. I don't think it functions on electrical power at all."

"It is a familiar, similar to a homunculous," Liam chimed in as he stretched at a corner a few streets away. "Definitely a mechanimal... though not steam powered, which is surprising."

"So not Victorian etherite at least," Luc surmised.

"If I were to guess," Lee commented as she focused on the robot dog, "I'd say it is clockwork."

"I wish I could examine it myself... but I didn't prepare my enchantments for primal investigation," Luc complained into his tea.

Liam sighed and straightened up. "I'll jog over and take care of that."

* * *

Erik held out the wrench and Anna took it from him without comment. As he turned, Clutch dropped a tuning fork beside him. "Thanks, boy," Erik mumbled as he picked up the fork and struck it on the engine block. After a few moments, he felt the vibrations pass through the block and resonate with the carbon build up and contaminates. As he pulled back, he found Clutch had left a couple other forks for him. He shook his head, still marveling at how the mechanism seemed to anticipate his needs when he worked with vibrational theories. Taking up the forks, he struck them in unison, two in one hand an one in the other, and placed them at critical points along the engine block. It took several minutes of fine positioning to get the resonance right to release the build up and corrosion from the interior parts of the engine and encourage them to break down small enough to be easily filtered out.

Erik finished his resonant attunement of the engine and drained the now truly contaminated oil into the pan before sliding out. He wiped off his hands and then picked up the vibrationally enhanced replacement oil and refilled the engine. "That should prevent corrosion for the next several years, " he thought with satisfaction. He really couldn't believe no one else used higher vibrational theories for practical applications... it was so simple, so fundamental, that science just couldn't have missed it. Erik frowned as he wondered again if the conspiracy theories about withheld technologies the leaders of the compound ranted about might not have been at least partially true. It would certainly explain why someting so simple was not in common use.

"What's Clutch doing?" Anna asked, sounding disinterested to anyone who didn't know her the way Erik did, as she flipped the page of her book.

Erik eyed the robot dog as it seemed to play bow near the garage bay door and bounce a little before scampering hastily under the car as if playing a game of tag or chase. "I have no idea." He knew Clutch responded to vibrational frequencies outside of human perception. He suspected it was reacting to entities or events happening in a near vibrational reality... sort of like the idea of multiple, parallel realities existing just a frequency quotient away from our own. "Hey, Clutch," he called as he knelt down to look under the car, "get out of there."

The dog made a mechanical bark of affirmative and scampered over to him. Erik smiled, patting him before standing, "and put my resonators back."

Erik slipped into the driver seat, rev'd the engine, and listened for a minute before pulling the car out. He took it for a slow drive around the block to make sure the knocks and pings were truly gone, and then parked it outside the garage. Tossing the keys to Joe as he walked in, he smiled. "Better than new."

Joe grinned. "Mrs. Danvers will be happy to hear that." He nodded at the keys and contract on the counter. "Fluid change and full check-up, the Jeep."

Erik nodded, taking the keys while skimming down the paperwork. "No complaints?"

Joe shook his head as he picked up the office phone. "Nope. She just wants general maintenance."

Erik shrugged. "That's different."

Joe smiled. "We'd have more regular business and far fewer problems if everyone brought them in before something was actually wrong."

Erik snorted, but agreed as he walked out of the office. He pulled the car into the bay and listened to it idle for a minute. It sounded perfect. "Really," he thought as he frowned, "perfect."

He popped the hood and got out fo the car as Anna lifted the hood and put the support in place.

"Sweet ride," she commented, "not fancy, but solid."

"Be better if it were pre-computer," Erik commented as he eyed the engine with her, "all the cleaning and optimizing of the engine isn't worth shit if the computer fritzes."

She shrugged. "Like people, it's easy to make a body stronger but we're hard to predict and control because we think... living brain," she nodded at the car, "electronic brain," she tilted her head at Clutch, "mechanical brain... thinking's messy."

Erik shook his head. "What are you reading today?"

"Kant: Critique of Pure Reason," she replied as she wandered back to her stool and took up her book.

"Why do you read that stuff?" Erik wondered aloud as he pulled a tuning fork out of his pocket.

"Makes me think," she replied as she settled down to continue her reading, pulling out a pencil to take notes. "I'm not sure about the translation though," she frowned as she scrutinized a sentence, "I may have to learn German so I can read the original." It was statements like that which reminded Erik of just how smart she was. She looked up from the page. "Can we stop by 'Repurpose Pavilion' before going home?"

Erik grinned at her. "You want to find a book on German?"

She shrugged. "Doubt old Gordon will have any, but he might. I like combing through the abandoned textbooks."

"Sure, I can look through his used tools... never know what he'll have."

With their evening decided, Anna turned her attention to philosophy and let Erik play with his machines.

Erik frowned as he examined the vibrational characteristics of the engine again. It sounded wrong. "No, not wrong," he thought bitterly, "it sounds like my engines." He wondered, for a moment if it was possible someone else used higher vibrational theory for practical applications after all. He set down his resonator and opened the driver's door to verify the VIN. He frowned as she saw small, meticulous, silver equations marked along the inside of the door panel. As he began to look more closely, he saw more markings, everywhere. They were along the controls, inside the wheel wells, along the struts and on the shocks. "Who the hell writes all over their cars," he mumbled as he activated the lift so he could check the tires. He detected along the inside wall of the tires even more markings. By the time he was done the only evidence of imperfection was that the oil had some normal degradation, but the actual engine parts seems better than pristine.

"At least I can replace the fluids with better, " he thought almost resentfully as he went to vibrationally enhance the oil, other fluids.

Anna looked up from her book as he began the draining and replacing. "What has you all pissed off?"

"This Jeep is too perfect," Erik grumbled, "except for the cryptic formulas.

"They what," she asked as she closed her book.

"Look along the door frame," he replied as he set the oil into the vibrational augmenter.

Anna opened the driver door and scrutinized the frame. "Weird... looks like some kind of advanced accounting. Maybe its a kind of inventory system?"

Erik shrugged. "That's as good an explanation as anything else."

* * *

Luc pretended to ignore how the college students responded to Liam's arrival. Even walking the man looked like he was a predator on the prowl. The primal grace of his movements, no matter how he tried to tone it back, could not be disguised completely. The reaction was either intense attraction or repulsion. Liam wasn't classically handsome, and certainly wasn't pop-culturally attractive, but his presence could not be ignored. Where Luc moved through modern society like a shark in the deep, sleek and unseen until he struck, Liam was a force of nature disrupting the orderly flow of human social mechanics. Luc was thankful his disruptive presence was not so strong as to influence socioeconomic calculations or his own magic might be adversely effected while in his company.

Liam grinned at the flabbergasted barista and ordered a quadruple espresso americano. With his coffee, and a local granola mix from 'Patty Cakes' in hand, Liam moved passed the tables and sat down across from Luc at the window. He took a sip of his coffee before speaking. "What's on the feed?" His eyes flicked from Luc's face to his scrolling tablet screen.

"Economic markets," Luc answered, frowning at his now completely cold tea. "I think I'll get another." He pulled off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Could you adjust these while I'm gone?"

Liam smirked as Luc pulled out a glasses repair kit. "Sure. Need the lenses cleaned too?"

"That'd be great, thanks." Luc set the glasses and kit near Liam and took his half full, cold tea back to the counter.

Liam looked about, frowning at the fact they were inside, and pulled out his travel kit. Inside were various small pouches of herbs and incenses, oils, waters, stones, and charms. He pulled out a grey glass vial and opened it. He put a napkin under Luc's glasses and tapped three drops from the vial onto the inside of each lens. Picking up a small turtle-shell rattle with celtic knotwork etching from his kit, Liam closes his eyes and gently but rhythmically shakes the rattle as he quietly chants in Gaelic.

Luc returns as Liam presses his left thumb to between his eyebrows and then smears the water drops across the inside of the lenses. He sits and remains quiet as Liam ends his soft rattling chant. He notes the beads of sweat along Liam's hairline, but notices no other signs of his strain of doing magick in so public a setting. Liam takes a deep breath, then quietly picks up the glasses and polishes the lenses with the cleaning cloth Luc had left.

"What was that," Luc asked as his gaze fell on the grey bottle.

"Essence of sage smoke," Liam replied, looking through the lenses to verify he hadn't left a smudge. "Try that," Liam instructed before taking a slow sip of his coffee.

Luc slipped on the glasses and grinned as he not only sees what could be seen by normal vision out of the Jeep, but recognizes the soft white haze of primal energies. The young mechanic comes into his line of site and Luc takes a sharp breath. "You're right, definitely awakened and active." He narrows his eyes and scrutinizes the vision. "I believe he has attuned foci on his person." His gaze fixes upon the end of a tuning fork poking out of a breast pocket. The white primal light is not hazy at all around the tool, but is a sharp, refined glow. "He's been working magick recently."

"On the Jeep," Lee clarified over their ear pieces. "He seems to use tuning forks and other similar tools to analyze things and I think he tries to change them by the same techniques."

"Sound magic?" Liam frowned. "Seems odd for a mechanically inclined mage."

"Music of the Spheres," Luc muttered. "He's probably working from some form of meta-science theory, like string theory or harmonic resonances. There are hermetic practices that work that way, though based on the astrological resonances... my guess is he's working from an 'all matter is just energy at different vibrational states' or something." He shrugged as Liam eyed him with what bordered on awe. "What? I've been studying occult practices since I was an apprentice. It is far easier to coordinate spells with other magicians if you have at least a passing acquaintance with their paradigms." Lifting his tea to his lips, he added uncomfortably. "Hermetics are usually the ones who have to adjust our formulas to work with magic from other traditions... you and Willa are exceptions to the rule when it comes to Dreamspeakers and Verbena... you adapt far easier than most."

Liam chuckled over his coffee. "Pot, meet kettle."

"I like how he omitted me in that statement," Lee grumbled.

Luc rolled his eyes. "You and I have seldom mixed our magicks, Lee. You have done far more cooperative casting with Willa, Liam and Connor... and I'm not sure how much of the success is from their adaptability or yours."

"Hmph." She huffed, then changed to topic. "Regardless, he's definitely realized there is something far stranger about the Jeep than the cryptic formulas written all over it. He just doesn't seem to recognize it for what it is."

"Magick?"

She nodded, though unseen by the others. "Yep. The way he's reacting, I don't think he's related his 'activities' with magick -- he probably thinks of it as an esoteric science."

Liam nodded in return and sipped his coffee. "What do you suggest?"

"Open his eyes," she replied confidently, "he may be awake, but he doesn't 'see'."

"You're out of my area," Luc added, before taking a larger swig of tea. "I don't do the 'welcome to the real-real world' tour guide routine."

"I suppose that leaves me," Liam commented dryly.

"I want to help," Lee insisted, tired of being sidelined by her elders.

"Certainly," Liam agreed. "Once you recover the Jeep, take Luc back to the chantry. I'll keep an eye on our mechanimage until you return." He frowned. "What are your impressions of the girl?"

"Exceptionally intelligent, but curiously absent or abstracted," Lee observed. "I'm not sure, but I don't think she induces paradox when he does his magick around her."

Luc raised an eyebrow. "I don't see any signs of primal energies about her, beyond what anyone would have being in close proximity to a mage."

"She's not awakened," Lee said firmly.

"No?" Liam's tone was unsure. "Not fully at least... though I'm not so sure she's sound asleep either."

"We're not here for her," Lee objected.

"She appears to be attached in some way to him, a cousin or dependent?" Liam pondered the possibilities, waiting for some feeling or insight.

"It looks like he's about to take the Jeep for a test drive," Luc interjected before Lee could respond.

"Then I'll start walking back to the garage." Lee let her focus on the garage fade and waited for the disorientation of integrating her full awareness back with her physical senses to fade. "They'll probably be calling me in a few minutes.

* * *

Liam watched as the mage and his companion entered junk shop. Antique shop would have been too generous. He let his gaze go slightly out of focus as he peers through the smoke wafting up from his talisman. "The shop has some old spirits hanging about, but no strong disturbances or barriers," he commented out loud, "the presence of so many old possessions thins the veil."

Lee walked up from behind him, not surprised that he'd sensed her approach. "How shall we do this?

"I think I'll take you over and give you some time to shoo away the lurkers," Liam replied absently, "and then I'll open a way from this junk shop to the other one."

"That should shake up his perspective," Lee agreed with a mischievous grin on her lips.

Liam began to let his censer swing in a slow, clockwise circle as the burning sage smoke began wind in thin tendrils about them. "Yes, it should."

* * *

Erik smiled at the iron haired black man behind the counter as Anna made a beeline for the used textbook shelves. "Hey, Gordon."

Bright white teeth flashed as Gordon returned the smile. "Hello Mr. Erik," he tilted his head so he could see down an aisle, "Miss Anna."

"Hey, Gordon," she called back from the stacks.

Gordon chuckled. "What is she hunting for today?"

Erik rolled his eyes dramatically. "German language textbooks?"

Gordon frowned. "Not sure I have any..." He leaned further to get a clear line down an aisle, and called out, "I do have some English to various language dictionaries and travel phrase books in the -travel- section!"

"Thanks," Anna chirped from somewhere deeper in the stacks.

"That girl reads more than a professor preparing a research grant," Gordon observed before looking back at Erik. "Got some new widgets in the bins." He looked over the counter towards Erik's feet. "Where's the piston poodle?"

Erik snorted. Nothing seemed to unsettle Gordon, not even a mechanical dog. "In the car."

"You know they passed that law about dogs left in cars," Gordon mused.

Erik smiled, but waved dismissively as he walked toward the knickknack bins. "For the ones that breath."

Erik rummaged happily through the bins, pulling out small pistons from lift doors, gears, springs, and antique tools he thought might be useful. He stopped, and his eyes went wide as he looked near the bottom of a bin. "It couldn't be," he thought as he reached down and plucked the small silver cylinder with a conical, omnidirectional top, "a Mk3 Sonic Screwdriver?"

Erik sat on his haunches, turning the little anachronism over in his hand. He'd expected it to be a metalized plastic toy, but the solidity and weight of the thing indicated it was made of a metal, or a metal analog, not aluminum. He stood up, holding the thing in his right hand as he began wandering his way from the front/left of the shop towards the rear/right. It took him a moment to realize he was smelling something smokey and herbal. It certainly wasn't pot, but it seemed familiar. He wended his way around the stacks, looking for Anna when it dawned on him where he'd smelled that herbal scent before. "The Jeep," he realized with a start, and looked around. There were thready wisps of some form of smoke drifting down the aisles, and to Erik's surprise, it seemed that the world had lost most of its color. He looked at his hands and the SSD, and both he and the tool looked full color... it was the rest of the world that'd gone flat.

Erik looked at some of the books and swore he saw them shifting position, as if adjusting themselves under the scrutiny of his gaze. Changing direction, he walked for the front of the store and stopped short as he saw an Oriental woman, the Jeep Owner, sitting on the counter. In full color. "Uhm..."

Lee slid off the counter in one fluid motion, smiling benignly at Erik. "We need to talk."

"We do?" Erik eyed a small, cat sized dragon wandering the shelves and he had a hard time splitting his attention between it and the woman slowly walking towards him. The dragon slipped behind a small humpty-dumpty figurine and, with what he was certain was delighted malice, hip-checked the thing right off the shelf. He was certain he heard a tiny, terrified scream as it fell.

Wide eyed, he looked back at the woman, her almond eyes nearly glowing as she drew near. "Yes, we do." She almost purred as she closed, "You're a mage."

Erik, his last nerve fried by the situation, very promptly collapsed to the floor, insensible.

Lee's eyebrow arched as she looked up from the crumpled figure on the floor to see Liam leaning against the shelves, his censer swinging side to side like a pendulum, a book open in his other hand, pages turning on their own. "Well, I admit... I didn't expect that reaction," he commented as he looked up from the book.

Lee frowned. "We should wake him before his unshielded thoughts call something unpleasant to this place."

"Hmmm," Liam replied, closing the book and putting it back on the shelf. "You're probably right. Even with the primal barrier I've put up about the place, we can't afford that." He made an acquiescent gesture towards the body. "Would you like to, or shall I?"

Lee grinned. "You'll be gentler."

Snorting, Liam knelt down beside the boy. "Touche." He pulled a few leaves from his pouch and crushed them below the boy's nose. "Dúisigh tú," he whispered, and the leaves sparkled and were drawn in on the boy's breath.

Erik coughed and started awake. A man was just stepping away from him and he was looking at the woman's shoes. They were the only color in a black and white world. He sat up with a jerk, banging his head on the book case. "Ow!"

Lee knelt down. "You okay?"

Erik looked about. "Where's Anna?"

"Back in what is commonly considered the 'real world'," Lee explained, gesturing about them. "This is the penumbra, or what some people call the 'spirit world'. It is just outside of our normal reality."

Erik blinked. "We're in another dimension?"

Lee shrugged. "If you like. This place is so close to normal reality that it mirrors it. We're in the shadow image of the shop you were in earlier."

"Okay," Erik wasn't sure why, but he was pretty sure the woman believed what she was saying. "So, why am I here?"

"It was a safe place, private place to talk with you," Liam answered.

"And we thought this would help convince you we aren't nuts," Lee added.

Erik slowly got to his feet. "So, what now?"

"Well," Lee started, then looked at Liam who nodded, "you appear to be untrained, but skilled. It is dangerous for mages who do magic without knowing the consequences they may face."

"Huh?" Erik frowned. "I don't do magic..."

"You simply utilize some unusual theoretical techniques not acknowledged by modern science to bring about changes to the world, like making motors run perfectly or improving the properties of materials you work with," Liam replied conversationally. When Erik looked at him and slowly nodded, Liam continued. "Let's just work for now on the maxim that any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic and leave it at that, okay?"

Considered this, and decided it wasn't an unreasonable request. "So, what do you want from me?"

"We have a place nearby where a small group of us are living. We are in need of someone mechanically inclined, which you are," Lee explained, "and you need training before you hurt yourself, others, or attract unwanted attention from unfriendly forces."

Erik frowned. "What about Anna?"

"She's a sleeper," Lee replied firmly, but cut off the rest of her response as Liam spoke up.

"She would be included, if you decide to join us." Liam tried to smile encouragingly, but his primal nature, which was so much more visible here than in normal reality, turned the expression predatory and powerful.

Erik's eyes widened as he realized that Liam looked something like a man with a wolf's mane for hair, canine eyes that seemed to reflect the full moon even though they were indoors, and slightly elongated teeth. There were also three long scars down the left side of his face Erik hadn't noticed before. "Aaaand if I don't decide to join you?"

Lee frowned, but Liam shrugged. "Then you are free to go." His eyes locked with Erik's and they seemed to fill with moonlight for a moment. "However, we don't want the trouble an unaligned, untrained, fledgling mage will stir up. If you want to go it on your own, do it away from here... far away."

Lee gave Liam a tight lipped glare, but didn't add anything,

Erik swallowed. "Okay... when do I have to decide?"

Lee locked gazes with Liam, and Erik was certain something passed between them that he couldn't hear. She broke the gaze and looked at Erik. "A few days, no more than a week."

Erik nodded, his eyes scanning about the shelves. They seemed to becoming more animated, or alive, the longer he stayed there. "How do I get back to the real shop?"

Liam stepped back and gestured in the direction Erik had walked from before noticing the change in the world. "Just go back the way you came."

Erik nodded again, swallowed, and walked to the end of the aisle. He looked back at the two 'mages'. "How will I let you know?"

"We'll be around," Liam replied confidently.

"Your little dog could probably find us if you need to get in touch before we do," Lee added.

"You know Valhalla Brews?" Liam asked, and Erik nodded. He'd never been in the place, but he'd seen it when they first explored Marshall. "One of us will be there on and off for the next few days."

"Okay." Erik stole one last glance at the dragon girl and wolf guy, and then followed his route back to the bins. By the time he returned to where he'd found the SSD, the world was full color again and the scent of burning herb was barely noticeable.

"Shit."