(October 2nd, 1986)

The Albion Central Library of the Arcane is always a busy place. By which I mean there’s no time of year when it isn’t mobbed by Hermetic spellcasters - from apprentices running errands, to journeyman Mages (like me) studying, to fully qualified Wizards doing their own secretive and arcane work.

To top that off, it’s a rather odd place even before you populate it with Hermetic spellcasters. It began its life as a castle built out on the Salisbury Plains, not far from Stonehenge, and had - over a period of about four hundred years - grown into an amazingly sprawling structure. Parts of it were only one story tall, while other parts towered up to six or seven stories. There were several towers which speared up into the sky even higher, built here and there without any obvious thought to the overall design.

Today, its bulk was spread over about thirty acres of land, built around a central amphitheater which could be opened to the sky. It gave the Library a general aura of disorganized chaos, which couldn’t have been further from the truth.

At least, that’s the impression they try to give people. Anyone who goes inside immediately knows better.

In addition to being the world’s largest repository of arcane lore, the Central Library doubles as both the headquarters of the Order of Hermetic Wizardry and the London College of Wizardry (which sounds a lot more impressive than it really is). The result is people scurrying this way and that on various errands, often so busy with their own work that they pay very little attention to what’s going on around them.

This is complicated further by the library’s ‘staff’. In lieu of a card catalog (which would have probably taken up an entire floor by itself and been impossible to find anything in), the Central Library has a friendly and extremely helpful staff of Intellect Spirits, which are spiritual entities that were summoned up and given form of some sort. In this case, each one took the form of a large tome (of various sizes, shapes, colors and compositions). All you had to do was ask for help, and one of the spirits would immediately fly over to join you, pages flapping.

The sight of so many Mages and Wizards being led around by flying books was occasionally comical. Sometimes I think the Wizards who created the system did it on purpose, to remind us not to take ourselves too seriously.

For example: within the Central Library, seeing an elderly Wizard - leaning on a staff, his beard trailing down to his belt and bound with silver bells, wearing purple robes dotted with glittering gold and silver stars, a matching broad-brimmed and pointy hat perched rakishly atop his head - hurrying after a flying book carved out of what appeared to be green crystal, its pages fluttering in the breeze of its passing, was a perfectly common sight.

You learned to ignore it after a while. Or went insane. Sometimes, it was hard to tell which.

I stopped at the reception desk, got visitors’ badges for the three of us, and clipped Artemis’s to her collar.

Then I turned to the receptionist and smiled. “I’ve encountered something I haven’t been able to identify and would like to speak to someone who could help me create an image of it and catalogue its abilities.”

The older woman peered at me from behind thick iron-rimmed glasses and pursed her lips. “You want Mnemonitranscribing. West wing section two, fourth floor, just past the astronomy tower.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

“The West wing second section lift is currently experiencing uncontrolled dimensional transcendence,” she added, sounding bored and looking back down at her crossword puzzle. “I’d advise against using it until they get that straightened out.”

Athena and I exchanged a look. “Excuse me?” I asked.

The receptionist looked up again, then sighed. “The lift is occasionally opening onto dimensions other than our own. So far it’s been harmless, but sooner or later someone’ll end up breathing a chlorine atmosphere and they’ll finally close it off and fix it. Until then, I’m advising people to stay away from it.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well...thank you.”

She smiled absently and returned to her crossword. “You’re welcome.”

Athena shook her head, bewildered. >

> I replied, smiling. >

Artemis made a weird noise. > She bumped up against my leg affectionately, then padded off in the direction of a room set aside for familiars to gather in while their owners were working. Animals were frequently disturbed by both the concentration of magical energy in the building and the oddities it tended to result in, so it was nice of the Library to provide a place near the entrance (and thus relatively unaffected) for familiars to gather in.

> Athena asked as we wove our way through the mass of spellcasters making their way hither and thither throughout the building.

> I replied. >

She chuckled softly. >

I waved my left hand dismissively. >

Athena laughed out loud at that, drawing startled looks from a few passers-by. Including one teenager whose gaze was so appreciative and arrested by Athena’s appearance that he nearly walked into a column.

I chuckled softly. >

Athena snorted. >

By the time we reached the second section of the West Wing, and were on our way up the staircase, I had decided that it might be worth risking the troublesome lift. My knee was aching fiercely and I had to stop at the third floor landing to rest for a moment.

Athena frowned and knelt down beside me, checking my knee brace. “Maybe you should take Trish up on that second round of physical therapy.“

“I don’t need any more PT,” I snapped.

She looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. Her concern washed over me, and I realized that I was simmering with resentment and anger.

I grimaced and closed my eyes, then took two deep breaths and began slowly counting to ten. By the time I got there, the negative emotions were gone...or at least dampened to the point where they wouldn’t cause me any trouble.

“Sorry,” I said quietly.

She rose and looked into my eyes. “I think you really ought to talk to Dr. MacMoran about these lapses.”

I pursed my lips and ignored the wave of irritation that rose up in me. “I can handle it. She said it’d take time for my mind to finish healing. With you and Artemis to make sure I know when it’s happening, I’ll be all right.”

“But that’s what bothers me about it,” Athena replied, resting her hands on my shoulders. “We don’t feel them coming on anymore. They’re just...there, suddenly, without any warning. I don’t think Dr. MacMoran was expecting that.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

Athena looked at me for a long moment, and I felt her uncertainty as clearly as if it were my own. Heck, some of it probably was my own. But finally she nodded. “All right. For now.”

On the fourth floor, we made our way past the entrance to the Astronomy Tower - a set of double doors covered with astrological symbols and a diagram of our solar system engraved on them - and down the hallway. Four doors down, we reached one which had the words “Office of Mnemonitranscribing” on a sign beside it.

Below the sign was a smaller one which read “Department Chair: Phillip J. Absolom, Wizard, D.Phil, PsyD, D.Mem, D.Mnem...” and continued on for several more.

Most wizards live to be at least 150, and many live to 200 or more. That’s plenty of time to pick up degrees by the bucket-full.

“See?” I said, smiling. “Alphabet soup.”

Athena shook her head and laughed softly.

I knocked on the door, and almost immediately a male voice called out to us, “Coming! Just a moment!”

The door opened to reveal a wizened old man with short white hair and a neatly trimmed white bead. He wore thick round spectacles and an old-fashioned tweed suit, and was just my height. “Yes?” he asked.

I smiled. “Good morning. My name is Alys Kinnear, I’m a Mage employed by Wizard Hollis Ellister of London. My familiars and I encountered a creature we haven’t been able to identify, and were hoping your services could help us do so.”

He squinted at Athena, then looked around. “I only see one familiar.”

I nodded. “This is Athena. My other familiar, Artemis, is an un-Elevated snow leopard.”

“I can’t pull memories from animals,” he said sagely, and started to close the door.

“So I’ve heard,” I said patiently, reaching out to hold the door open. “That’s why I didn’t bring her along.”

He frowned. “You left a familiar behind somewhere?”

Patience, Alys. “No, sir, she’s in the main building socializing with the other familiars there.”

“Ahhh.” He nodded. “Very good, that’s very good. What can I do to help you?”

Oh boy. “We...encountered a creature last night that we haven’t been able to identify yet.”

“You don’t want me, I do memory transcription,” he said, sounding a little annoyed. “You want Allizoology, over in the East Wing.”

“No, sir, we need to have a clear image of the creature first,” Athena said, sensing my growing irritation and stepping in.

“Ahhh,” he nodded. “And you want me to create an image of it from your memories?”

“Please, sir,” I said politely.

He nodded, starting to look like an elderly drinking bird.

Athena evidently caught the stray thought, because her lips twitched and she put her hand over her mouth, her eyes twinkling with mirth. I was glad she was amused, because I wasn’t sure I had the patience to deal with this man.

“Come in, come in,” he said cheerfully, stepping aside and opening the door all the way. “Have a seat by my desk, and we’ll get to work right away. Shouldn’t take very long if the memories are fresh.”

“Less than 72 hours old,” I said.

“Oh, very good!” he beamed. “This will only take moments, then.”

I took a moment to look around in amazement as I moved an untidy stack of papers from one of the chairs and place it carefully on another pile nearby. His office looked like a tornado had hit it. Books, files and stacks of loose paper were haphazardly piled as thick as two feet deep on every available surface. The walls were lined floor to ceiling with bookcases that were crammed with books of every shape and size, in no order I could immediately recognize.

Between that and his rather batty performance at the door, I was seriously questioning his qualifications. But he wouldn’t be here if he didn’t know what he was doing, would he?

The receptionist’s warning about the lift in this wing floated through my thoughts, and I wondered. Did any of us really know what we were doing?

That was a disturbing thought.

He sat down in the other chair and turned to face me. “What I need you to do is just lean forward a little so I can touch your temples. Then I’ll cast the spell, while you focus on the memory you want to draw information from. Once you have that memory fixed firmly in mind, I’ll have you guide me through it to the object you want to visualize, and we’ll create a real-world image of it.”

“When you put it that way, it doesn’t sound very complicated,” Athena said uncertainly.

“Oh, it isn’t,” he agreed. “Not really. Not after doing it for fifty years, anyway. Now, sit very still, and think very hard about the memory you want to use. Closing your eyes can help with the visualization.”

I did as he said, taking a deep breath and trying to relax as I called up my memories of the creature before it had assaulted me. I’d always had a nearly perfect memory, and my recent therapy had been helpful in improving both my recall time and clarity, so it didn’t take me long to have it fixed in my mind.

“That’s lovely,” Dr. Absolom murmured. “You have a fabulous memory, young lady. So clear and precise. This won’t take long at...” He trailed off into silence and then sucked in a little breath. “My goodness, what a disturbing looking creature. Very distinctive.” I felt him shift slightly. “Excuse me, I didn’t get your name...”

“I’m Athena,” my sister said with unflappable patience, “and this is Alys.”

“Oh, yes, you did tell me that, didn’t you.” He laughed. “For someone who works with memories, my own is shockingly bad. Athena, would you be so kind as to hand me one of those quartz crystals? Yes, those on the shelf there, any one will do. Thank you.”

One of his hands left contact with my head. “All right now, Alys, just keep the image of the creature clear in your mind...just like that...this is going to feel strange, but please try not to fight it.”

He began to chant softly in a language I didn’t recognize, and I felt a strange pulling sensation in my mind. Instinct told me to try to stop whatever he was doing, but this wasn’t the violent sort of intrusion I’d experienced at Brenna’s hands. Dr. Absolom’s touch on my mind was gentle, cautious and focused on one specific thing.

He tisked softly as he worked. “Goodness, but someone did some damage to your mind, didn’t they.”

My eyes snapped open in surprise, and he smiled a little. “Concentrate. I’m almost done. I was a mind healer a long time ago before I shifted my specialty to memory transcription. I recognize the signs of recently healed psychic damage. You really need to work on your defenses, they’re very weak.”

I nodded slightly. “I know, Doctor.”

“Call me Phillip. I try not to stand on formalities. It seems rather silly when I’m working inside your head.”

“Thank you.”

With a flourish, he sat back and cradled the crystal Athena had retrieved for him - a rough-cut chunk of smoke-colored quartz - and smiled. “Ta-da! The magic is complete.”

I felt him press a bit of Anima into the crystal, and an image of the creature we’d confronted in the Swindon park sprang to life above it. This was not the colorless, insubstantial sort of image I’d created of the Thames Slasher’s ghost back in April. This was full color and as solid as if the thing were in the room with us. It showed the creature with its face down on the ground, its oily black skin gleaming.

I shuddered a little, and felt a surge of revulsion from Athena.

“Magnificent. Young lady, you have one of the best memories I’ve had the pleasure of working with.” Phillip said. “With an effort of will, you’ll be able to zoom in, though because you were at a distance you’ll lose focus and resolution past a certain point. You can also...” he gave the image a little prod and it began to move, its legs pumping slowly as it moved across an unseen landscape. After a moment, its head rose to show its blank face and gleaming teeth.

I pressed back into my chair and watched in mute horror as my features slowly formed on its face. The image finally stopped moving when my...when its eyes opened.

Phillip smiled gently. “Sorry, I know that’s probably disturbing for you, but you should know the extent of the recording I made. If you’re going to take this over to the Allizoology department, they’ll need the best possible view of it and what it’s capable of doing.” He waved his hand through the image and it vanished.

“Thank you,” I said quietly, a little shaken. It had been impossibly unsettling watching that face form. “I’m not glad I had to see that again, but I am glad I can demonstrate it rather than having to describe it.”

He nodded. “That’s why people come to me, my dear.” He handed me the crystal.

“What do I owe you for this?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not a penny. My services are covered by the Library, and are free to all. If I may ask you one question, though?” he added hopefully.

I nodded. “Of course.”

“Have you had one of the Sidhe in your mind?”

I looked up at Athena, who looked surprised, then returned my eyes to him. “Why do you ask?”

“The damage that was done to your mind,” he said. “It was very recent, yes?”

“Just this past April,” I nodded.

“I’ve seen damage like that before, caused specifically by Sidhe mind magic,” he said.

“It...it wasn’t a Sidhe who did it, but a Changeling,” I said quietly. “My half-sister, actually.”

Phillip tipped his head to the side, examining me more closely. “Yes, I see it now. I didn’t notice your ears or that very unusual eye color before.” He smiled sheepishly. “Surprisingly, I’m not the most observant of people. Interesting. Though I suppose there’s no reason why a half-Sidhe couldn’t learn certain types of Sidhe magic.”

I leaned forward a little, both excitement and trepidation fluttering in my belly. “Can you tell me anything about that sort of magic?”

He shook his head with regret. “I’m afraid not. Not my area of study. I saw the effects of similar magic on people two or three times when I was a mind healer and learned to recognize it from that, but that’s all I really know of it.” He smiled wryly. “Except that it’s next to impossible for a mortal spellcaster to learn to do the kinds of things the Sidhe can do to our minds.” He cupped his hands around mine where they held the crystal and patted them gently. “I imagine it was amazingly unpleasant.”

“Cripplingly so,” Athena said quietly from where she was still standing by the door. She hadn’t been able to find a place to sit or where she could stand without risking the tottering piles of books and papers.

“Well,” he said, leaning back and smiling reassuringly. “The human mind is an incredibly resilient thing. You seem to be managing admirably, and I’m sure you’ll be fully healed in no time.”

I smiled lopsidedly, unable to muster any real enthusiasm for his reassurance. “You saw people fully recover from this sort of damage?”

He hesitated, then admitted, “Not exactly. There were always lingering side-effects, and one of them was catatonic and never came out of it...but you seem to have passed that crisis point, at least.”

> I murmured to Athena, feeling a surge of hopelessness.

> Athena said firmly. >

“Of course,” Phillip said thoughtfully, “It’ll probably be rather different in your case. After all, you’re half-Sidhe. Your mind will probably be better able to bounce back from Sidhe magic.”

> Athena smiled a little.

It made sense, and some of my despair retreated. “Thank you, sir.”

“Now,” he said, businesslike again, “I’m sure you’ll want to take that crystal over to the folks in Allizoology. You’ll find them in the East Wing, first floor. The whole first floor.” He smiled. “They’re a bit higher priority than I am.”

I put the fist-sized chunk of quartz into my bag and smiled. “Thank you very much for your time, Phillip. You’ve been very helpful.”

“My pleasure, my dear,” he sighed. “Sometimes I think the Library’s forgotten I’m here. Of course, most wizards can do this sort of thing for themselves these days.” He smiled sadly. “My own fault, really, for codifying and simplifying the process all those years ago.”

“I’ve learned to use a rudimentary version of it,” I said. “But this is far more detailed than anything I know how to do.”

He smiled warmly. “Well, if you ever have the time and the desire, you come back and I’ll show you a few tricks. It’d be nice to have someone to teach again.”

I returned his smile. “I might just take you up on that.”

Athena opened the door and stepped out into the hall as I carefully picked my way back over to her.

“Oh!” he said suddenly. “Have they fixed the lift yet?”

I looked over my shoulder at him and shook my head. “The receptionist warned me about it, so I’m guessing they haven’t.”

He sighed. “Bother. Not that it wasn’t stunningly beautiful to have it open onto a world with three moons in the sky, but I shudder to think what might happen next time. I guess I’ll be taking the stairs for a while yet.” He lifted his hand in farewell. “Good bye, ladies! Do come again sometime!”

Athena and I both waved and closed the door behind us.

> Athena said as we headed for the stairs.

> I agreed. >

She nodded. >

I smiled. >

We made our way back down the stairs - down, fortunately, is usually easier on my knee than up - and headed for the East Wing of the Central Library.

We got a little lost.

I’m not ashamed to admit it. No matter how many times I’m there, it never ceases to amaze me how complicated, complex, and confusing a building the Central Library it is.

After a half-hour of blind turns and twisting corridors - and many hurrying wizards dodged - Athena and I ended up in the South Wing, staring at a sign indicating we’d found the Department of Thaumaturgical Studies. I sighed. “This building needs teleportation stations or something.”

Athena snorted. “You hate teleportation. Besides, it’s not like we could use them anyway, with our bottomless bag and your belt pouches.”

I grunted. Mixing any kind of dimensional shifting magic - like teleportation - with the kind of dimensional magic used to create my insanely spacious bag and extra-deep pouches could result in a fairly impressive amount of very localized destruction. Not explosive, but implosive. They’d used purpose-built weapons made like that - called D-Bombs - during the second World War. It was safer to just not risk it.

“You’re right on both counts,” I confirmed, then sighed again. “Maybe something like that spatial folding trick Jonathan showed off the other day. Well, come on, if we go through here we should loop around to the East Wing before much longer.”

About ten minutes later we saw a sign for the Allizoology department, and followed it like a lifeline.

> Athena asked as we walked past a second sign for the department. >

> I said, > I smiled. >

Athena chuckled softly and shook her head. >

>

It turned out that Dr. Absolom was a bit behind the times…the Allizoology department took up not one but three floors. After all, there’s at least as many types of otherworldly creatures on Earth as there are ‘natural’ ones. It’s an enormous field of study.

Big enough for the department to have its own reception desk. A teenager, not much older than my young friend Billy Fisher, was sitting behind it with textbooks strewn open in front of him, copying passages from one of them into a spiral-bound notebook. He looked up as we approached his desk and smiled at us. “Good morning! What can I do for you today?”

“We just came from Mnemonitranscribing, and need someone to help us identify a creature.”

“Of course.” He smiled and pointed to the hallway beyond him. “Down the hall, third door on the right. Ask for Professor Strickland.”

The door to Professor Strickland’s office was open and he was sitting behind the desk as we paused in the doorway. His office was much more what I’d expected from a professional wizard...still overloaded with books, files and papers, but everything was neatly organized on the shelves and in tidy piles on the desk and worktable.

Strickland himself was a classical wizard. He looked to be a tall man, even sitting down, and was old enough that his dark hair - neatly trimmed and brushed back - had turned a very distinguished-looking iron color. He had a full beard, neatly trimmed and combed, and wore a tidy dark blue three-piece suit with Norden runes embroidered on the collar of the white shirt beneath. He looked up and smiled politely at us. “Good morning. Can I help you?”

I returned his smile. “Good morning, Professor. My name is Alys Kinnear, I’m a Mage in the employ of Wizard Hollis Ellister, and this is one of my familiars, Athena. We encountered - “

To my surprise, he interrupted me. “The same Alys Kinnear who handled that haunted asylum block in London last year?”

I nodded. “Yes…”

He rose and came around the desk, offering me his hand to shake. “Very pleased to make your acquaintance, young lady. Ghosts and hauntings aren’t at all my field of study, but I was very impressed with what I read of how you handled the situation, and so were many of my colleagues here at the Central Library. It sounded like quite a little mess.”

“It was,” I said, smiling as I shook his hand firmly and feeling both proud and a little embarrassed by his praise. “Thank you very much, sir.”

“You’re very welcome, Mage Kinnear.” He went back and sat behind his desk, steepling his hands and smiling at me. “Now, what can I do for you today?”

“My familiars and I encountered a creature two nights ago that we were unable to identify,” I said, pulling out the crystal that Phillip had prepared for me. I put it on Professor Strickland’s desk and activated it with a little surge of Anima. “I was doing some work for D.I. Ben Donovan of Scotland Yard. After the creature attacked us, we were forced to destroy it, as it demonstrated impressive regenerative capabilities.”

Professor Strickland drew the crystal closer to him and slowly turned the unmoving image. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything quite like it,” he said thoughtfully, then gave it a little push and started its loop of movement and replicating my face. “Those are very impressive claws and teeth.” He leaned in and looked at the face it formed, then up at me. “Interesting. Some sort of psychic attack?” He gestured to the chair across his desk from him. “Tell me all about it.”

For the next hour, Athena and I took turns describing our encounter with the creature in as much detail as possible. Professor Strickland took copious notes, frequently pausing to examine the magical image of the creature for reference.

Finally, feeling rather drained, I sat back in my chair and sipped the glass of water the professor’s aide had brought for me. Athena was drinking hers as Strickland skimmed through his notes with a thoughtful look on his face.

“This doesn’t sound like any supernatural creature in our catalogue,” he said slowly, looking up at the image still floating above the crystal. “Fascinating, though. It has characteristics of several different types of creature we’re already familiar with: predatory attributes, like the claws and teeth; the psychic attack and apparent draining of either emotion or energy - or both, I suppose; vulnerability to bright light, especially sunlight...”

He trailed off and scratched the side of his nose. “Mage Kinnear, do you mind if I make a copy of this crystal and enter these notes into our archive? You will, of course, be credited with the discovery, if it turns out to be a naturally occurring entity. I have a feeling, however, that this may have been a new type of magical construct.”

I thought briefly about the creature which had attacked Billy Fisher after killing his older sister. It had, I believed, been a magical construct. Had it been similar to this one in any way?

“I don’t know a lot about magical constructs,” I said slowly, “mostly just theory and some contact with automatons - ”

“Not the same thing at all,” Professor Strickland interrupted me absently, busily copying the enchantments and information from the original crystal into a new one. “Automatons are very impressive, but they have no life of their own. Constructs can mimic life to the point that some very complex ones can pass tests of sentience.”

“ - And with one other entity last year that might’ve been a construct,” I finished.

Professor Strickland looked up. “Oh? Like this one?”

I shook my head. “Nothing at all like it, except that I’m pretty sure it was man-made.”

“Will you tell me about it?” he asked hopefully.

So I explained about the essence-draining creature that Athena, Artemis and I had dealt with at the Fishers’ home the previous year. I described it in great detail - making a point to emphasize how awful it had smelled, and how my familiars had ‘smelled’ it in a metaphysical sense before I’d been able to physically - and explained how I’d found evidence of damage to the energy centers in Billy’s body when I examined him. With Athena adding occasional details, I told Professor Strickland about how the thing had finally been destroyed - messily - by a blast of silver buckshot from the center chamber of Athena’s LeMat revolver.

Professor Strickland sat back in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, that does sound like a magical construct, especially the way it left an ectoplasm-like substance behind it when you destroyed it. This creature,” he indicated the image still hovering above the crystal on his desk, “bears many of the same hallmarks.”

“But it was regenerating in the dark,” Athena pointed out.

“Yes,” Strickland nodded. “If it was, as I believe, a magical construct, it would have taken an enormous amount of skill and energy to bring to life.” He frowned. “You found no other traces in the immediate area?”

I shook my head. “We thought it was a living predator of some sort, so we did a cursory search of the surrounding area for any others and left the rest to the police.”

He nodded again. “Of course, that was very wise. Perhaps I’ll follow up with them and see if they found anything else. Who was in charge of the investigation?”

I gave him one of Ben’s business cards, writing the phone number at Hollis’ home on the back.

“Excellent!” He smiled at us, rising and shaking our hands, then handing me the original crystal. “I’ll be in touch if we learn anything new about your mystery creature. Do please get in touch with us if you think of any other details or learn anything new about it. And do come again anytime. You might even apply for a fellowship here when you get your Wizard’s license, especially if you’re interested in travel. We can always use young people with your skill and intelligence.”

I smiled, pleased by the offer. “Thank you, Professor. I’ll consider it.”

“Do that.” He sat back down. “Have a good day!”

Athena and I wound our way back to the main entrance, pausing to collect Artemis from the lounge where she’d been rubbing elbows (so to speak) with other familiars. I ruffled her ears as she emerged from the room. “Did you have a good time?”

She purred and rubbed against my leg. >

I rested a hand on her neck as we walked, smiling. “Yeah. Yeah, we did. And a little more, I think.”