Rylie had taken an interest in the various artifacts than Andre had known about, and he was clearly excited to tell her all about them. Mark listened with half interest, instead thinking of the situation at hand. As far as he could tell, they had two main problems. One was that somebody was trying to kill off Piety as an organization. The second was that whoever had kidnapped him, Jay, and Lily five years ago was planning on doing it again. Whatever had saved him last time must have thrown a wrench in whatever the plan was.

He couldn’t remember anything from the event himself but tried to think about what was going on before. Five years ago, was hazy on its own, let alone with Blank magic addling his mind. He remembered that Lily and he were on a regular case. Some member of The Splurge was terrorizing a school. They went to investigate and stop him. After they were done, he was knocked out. Then, all the other stuff happened. What he couldn’t remember. What he could.

He looked at his partner as Andre was telling her about Knowledge’s Gauntlet, which had the power to copy the other artifacts if in touching distance. On top of everything else, they barely knew the implications of Rylie’s new powers. That itself could cause some major headaches. He stood up and went to the bar when Lou approached him.

“You doing alright, kid?” she said.

“How old are you, Lou?”

“Old enough to call you kid all I want. So, what’s going on?”

Mark sighed, “Things are getting more hectic. I keep trying to talk Rylie out of joining up, but she won’t. She’s in. So, I need to bond with her. And I’m not sure I’m ready for that again.”

“Sounds like you need closure.”

“Excuse me?”

She put down a glass she was cleaning, “Closure. You up and left after whatever happened. You didn’t talk to anyone. Especially Lily. Based on the fact that I’ve seen you in here alone most nights, you still haven’t. She was there, right?” He nodded. “There you go then. She might remember something you don’t. So, talk to her.”

“Why is everyone so wise all of a sudden?”

“You must be talking about Hugh. Every time I’ve seen him lately, it’s been like talking to a fortune cookie.” They both laughed then she handed him some drinks for the table, “On the house. Have a good night, then find a way to go get some closure. It’s just going to hold you back ‘til then.”

He took the drinks back to the table, where his partner and Andre had shifted the conversation to non-Patron artifacts. Andre had apparently always had an interest in the history of various items and was lit up as bright as Rylie when talking about them. Mark shot off a text under the table to Lily, who replied fairly quickly that she would swing by his place. He said his goodbyes and went back his apartment.

Sitting out front chain-smoking cigarettes and shaking was Lane. He picked up his steps to meet with her. She jumped as he got closer, realized it was him, then relaxed. Her emotions and powers were running wild. As he looked at her, he suddenly realized just how attractive she was, and wanted nothing more than to take her to bed. Then suddenly, the feeling was gone. She was trying to keep her powers in check, but they were running wild. Her Patron was probably furious with her.

Before he could say anything, Lily showed up through a portal. He knew she could sense powers being used, and he stopped her from casting something to harm Lane. “She needs our help.” As the three of them got into the elevator, he explained the situation. Lane wouldn’t talk. She was using all of her energy to keep focus.

“Longing is trying to force her hand. And there’s not much we can do from here. Lane, we’re going to grab some of your stuff from your apartment, then Lily is going to teleport you to the agency. We have blockers to stop Patrons from reaching their followers.”

Lane nodded as they reached their share floor, then they went and gathered some clothes from her. Mark explained to Lily than Lane was not a threat and wanted out and to make sure the agency knew that. She nodded, said she would be right back, and the two women left. Mark went back to his apartment, sitting on his bed.

“I should’ve bought a real chair.”

Not too long after, Lily’s portal reappeared in his living room and she stepped through. He began to speak, but she held up a hand.

“She’s alright. As soon as we reached the blocker room, her magic calmed down. Jay personally is setting up a suppression room and Hanna said they’ll make it less like a prison cell.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s no problem,” she said, “So, what’s up? Little weirded out that you’ve been avoiding me since the funeral save for the fight against Artist.”

He sighed, “I know. And that wasn’t fair. I was happy to see you two again, but once everything calmed down, I realized I wasn’t ready. What all do you remember?”

She swallowed and sat down next to him on the bed, “I remember us waking up in that dimension. Not having access to Traitor. I remember what Jay and I were shown. Once it was all broken, I remember seeing your eyes, how betrayed you looked. How hurt.”

“It makes it hard to realize what’s real and what isn’t.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I get how Jay feels.”

“He told you?”

She shook her head, “He didn’t have to. Turns out we weren’t shown the same thing after a certain point. Once the base connection was made, our visions split. I saw a happy life, away from all the crap. He was shown his ‘true world’. And since then, he’s been searching for it. He thinks I don’t know. And I don’t want to add to the stress. His magic is already poisoned from Boston, and his mind was already splitting from interdimensional travel. He’s speeding up the process.”

Mark nodded, “So, what do we do to help? Convince him that this is his real world?”

“He knows it is. When everything is okay and his mind stays lined out for a little, he knows. But they messed with our emotions, our souls. That nagging thought that maybe he’s wrong hit and before you know it, he’s off to somewhere else.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. But at the same time, everything that happened isn’t mine or Jay’s fault.”

“I know that, but it still hurts. We had a future planned. And then suddenly that was all destroyed. Our bond that we forged as partners was destroyed. I couldn’t keep doing that.” He looked at her.

She smiled softly, “I know. I never blamed you for leaving. I was surprised when you found a way to retire instead of just transferring to a different agency though. I didn’t even know that was truly an option.”

“It technically isn’t. And I couldn’t just transfer. What happened with us on a personal level is one thing. But to have our partner bond broke was an ethereal pain I can’t describe. To experience it twice when it was broken with Jay was too much.”

“I felt it too, you know. Two sides to every bond.”

He laughed, “I guess I never realized that. I just don’t want to feel that pain again.”

“Is that why you haven’t made the connection with Rylie yet?

He nodded, and she continued, “Rylie is a solid girl. I can’t sit here and claim something won’t happen that will break a new bond, but just like everything else, doing nothing won’t help matters. If it’s too much, ask Hanna to do more administrative things. See if she’s willing to let you solo missions. But don’t hold Rylie back. That’s not fair.”

“Yeah, I know. She’s all in at this point. And I want to be out in the field. I’m good at it. And she’s getting better at it. I don’t want her first experience with a partner to be the guy who bailed on her. But I needed to know that we’re still good.”

Lily laughed, “Marcus Noel James, we’ve never not been good. I know we both went through some shit, and I know it’s going to be tense, but we were still partners at one point. Even without a full bond, I’ve still got your back and I would never even consider that you don’t have mine. Same with Jay. You left because of us. We obviously knew you would need some time to get used to everything. Why do you think Hanna tried to make sure we were always out on missions?”

He laughed, “That tiny, evil genius.”

The chuckled at that for a bit before Lily finally said, “Why don’t you have any chairs?”

“I lost my coin during that Artist fight. It was destroyed.”

“That sucks. Where did you even get that thing to begin with?”

Mark paused, “I…don’t know, actually. I only had it a few months before I retired. It showed up on my desk one day and my magic just latched onto it.”

“Did you tell anyone back then?”

“No, I just started using it. For a while there, I almost never used my weapons summons favoring that instead.”

“Mark, that’s really weird. A magic coin appeared on your desk one day and you just started using it?”

“Look, I never said I was the smartest guy,” he said. “You have a point. It was in a small silver box. I wonder if Hugh remembers anything about it.”

“I doubt it,” she replied. “It’s been over five years now. Even he doesn’t care about treasure that much.”

He nodded, then a realization hit him, “I know someone who does though.” He shot off a text to Rylie to see if she was still at Lou’s. She called him back and Andre was on the other end of the phone.

“You have a question about an artifact? I have to say I’m surprised, I though we were putting you to sleep earlier.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, Andre. Just a lot on my mind. Hey, do you know about any magic coins or metal that can change its shape.”

“I mean, lots of metal can be controlled magically, but if you mean something that can bond to a magic user, then yeah, right here in Chicago, actually.”

Mark almost leapt in joy, “Tell me about it.”

“Well, based on some research and powers, some items have been made to be used as weapons. Basically, mini artifacts. They typically start off as a raw magic, then shape to the person who first touches it. So, if I touched one for example, it would probably find a way to help me learn more or find things, like a magic metal detector.” He heard Rylie say something in the background, “Yours was a coin that you could stretch into any metal? That sounds about right then.”

“Could you think of any reason someone would have just gave it to me?”

“Gave it to you? That’s crazy. Raw magic on its own is hard to come by. Very few people have the ability to extract it from someone. They’re a highly sought-after item. People would pay millions for it, let alone just be given one.”

“You said someone is manufacturing them in Chicago though. Do you know who?”

“Of course I do,” he said. “Though getting him to give you another would be difficult. It’s Thatcher Tomlin.”

“Thanks, Andre. I appreciate it. You two have fun.” He hung up the phone. Lily stared at him as he processed what he had just been told.

“I’m going to need your help on this one.”

“Of course. Where are we going?”

“It’s time to visit Strategy.”