"Hello Matt,” I nodded cheerfully to the policeman as I met him at the door. It was a few minutes before noon, but I had been up for a while. I still didn’t dare to sleep too deep, so I had spent the night with my studies and a few hours of meditation. It doesn’t sound very restful, but I slowly caught up on my beauty sleep without actually sleeping. All that meant was that my energy reserves were back to normal, and I may be able to try real sleep without risking an accidental ‘Sleeping Beauty’ moment. That would be embarrassing. A narcoleptic dragon is just silly.

“Hey, there Professor, how is...” he paused a moment as he looked at the living room. “What the heck is that?”

I glanced at the living room and noted the images of circles slowly rotating in the air. They were all canted at varying angles, but they spun in synchronization. “Oh, that’s just some of my work. I recently figured out how not to blow up my vid player. This is an older model, but it has all the basic functions. I was playing around this morning, and I figured out how the simulator worked. I think I may get another one for the workspace below. It may help. You know that adage ‘Measure twice, cut once’.”

“Does that mean you may actually have an address to call?” Matt asked with a smile.

“Well, I would hate to be mobbed by all my fans,” I mimed looking behind him fearfully. “But it would keep everyone from looking at me as if I am a caveman.”

“It certainly would make arranging a pickup easier. Are you going to get a portable terminal too?”

Shrugging, I followed him out to his vehicle. I was still reluctant to join the current century. Besides, most people used implants except for the supernaturals. Vampires mostly went for a ring that projected an interface. Older vampires and shifters usually used a wrist-mounted device. They were old tech and bulkier but more reliable around mystic energy. Jeremy used one, but his was tricked out with more accessories than Batman’s fabled utility belt. I might be able to put a ward on the back of the case of the wrist device if I was careful.

“Maybe, no rush. Rome wasn’t built in a day.” I paused as I was about to get in the car. “Wait for a second; I need to get Helga.”

“Helga? Who’s that?” Matt asked, somewhat confused. “I thought it was you and some woman named Estella.”

“Well, if we’re lucky, it will be. If we’re not, we’ll have to get another car to fit her pet caveman into.”

The model home was only across the street, so it took less than a minute to walk over and knock on the door. When the door finally opened, I blinked in mild surprise. Estella had dressed up even more than the first time I had seen her in the alley. Colorful gauzy silks hung tastefully from her gown. Honestly, she looked more like she was heading to a festival than a police scene.

“Nice get up. Are you going to the Ball afterward?” I asked. It just better not be in my house, or she was losing her deposit. Or she would if she was actually paying to stay at my extra house. Hmm, how did that happen again?

“Don’t be silly Derek; these are just ceremonial clothes. If I have a chance, I like to dress up to show my respect for the elements.”

“Do the rock monsters and wild wind elementals criticize your fashion sense if they see you dressing down?”

She giggled, “I doubt they even realize the difference between what I am wearing and what I am. I believe they may consider this comparable to a bird’s feathers.”

“Then why...”

“Because I know that I am dressing this way to show respect. I commune directly with them. They know no human tongue. The elements feel what I feel. I wear this to remind myself that this is a solemn occasion and help me project the proper emotions.”

I found it hard to believe the elf had any other setting than bubbly, but I suppose she would know how to commune with elemental spirits more than I would. To be honest, I tend to ignore the elemental planes. You can’t live in them for more than a few minutes, and the elemental inhabitants don’t even perceive you as a sentient unless you have a link to them.

A polite cough interrupted our discussion. “I hate to rush you, but Conrad only gave me two hours. I can call in if you need more, but...”

“No big deal,” I said with a nod. I was just along for the ride. I didn’t think I would be much help in this situation. “Is tall, dark, and brutal coming?”

“Sir Faramond is running some errands in the Blight for me. Would you mind escorting me today?” she asked with a warm smile.

My smile froze. Now I was stuck escorting the elf princess around. “Sure, no problem.” She was nice enough but so sweet she made my teeth hurt. Then again, I had been stuck in my house for days. I mean, I love research, and after a year of dead ends, I was finally moving forward, but unless I am hibernating, I like to stretch my legs a bit. I used to go to the few surviving books stores in the Blight, walk around, browse the old books, talk shop with the armed shopkeepers, and beat up muggers.

While I was psyching myself up to something resembling enthusiasm, we both entered the rear of the police craft. The car’s door was newer than the rest of the vehicle, and I had a strange feeling of deja vu. If we had missiles shot at us again, I was raising my rates.

It was a reasonably quiet flight. I was balanced on the precipice of depression and acceptance, and the others in the vehicle just talked about the weather. Literally. Estella could predict the weather for days in advance. It was usually not a much of a trick, considering they have limited weather control in this world, but apparently, the Álfar was telling Matt that there would be a massive storm in a few weeks. I tuned their chatter out as I wrestled with my inner child.

When we finally arrived at the first circle mage’s hideout location, I was a bit startled. Conrad had mentioned the melting, but it wasn’t quite what I had imagined. Previously the area was primarily residential with some urban buildup. The housing rarely exceeded ten floors, with mainly three-story housing and minor shopping centers. I had only seen it devoid of life after the evacuation, but now it just looked bizarre.

As Conrad had said, the buildings were made of permacrete and durasteel. Both artificial materials were very strong. It took solvents and heavy-duty power tools to make a dent unless you had super strength. It was mostly immune to heat, but plasma would eventually burn it. It just wasn’t supposed to have a liquid state. Yet it had melted. The buildings for hundreds of meters around us had been completely turned into a gray and black sludge.

Towards the event’s perimeter, the buildings looked like they had been made of wax. At the edge, you could make out the carcasses of the complexes, but they were rounded and slumped at odd angles. Humans liked right angles, except in art, and here there were none to be found. A little further in, and it all sloped steeply to the ground as walls and towers all swirled together. Here and there, a lump formed that may have been a parked vehicle. Obviously, something that either didn’t share the common liquid state or at least resisted it longer.

The center was just flat. I had expected to see a crater. Seeing the perfectly flat ground, I realized how foolish that idea was. Liquids don’t form craters; they settle. Ground zero may as well have been professionally molded into a picture-perfect parade ground. A tiny voice in my head also suggested it would make an excellent staging area. I immediately hushed it—no need to borrow trouble until we knew more.

Estella was silent as she exited the vehicle. She looked slightly upset at the havoc around us. I wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t a druid, so I wasn’t aware of any particular love of nature unless it was an elf thing.

“This ground is more like plastic than rock,” her statement came out with a slight shudder. “I didn’t think it would be like this.”

Her surprise made sense when you thought about where she had been. From what I can tell, she spent a lot of time in the Blight and my housing complex. The Blight was old construction that hadn’t been rebuilt or repaved with newer housing material. They still used cement and concrete in a good portion of the area. My neighborhood was also old but was a quaint area of the historical middle class. It likewise did not use the newer materials except as part of the actual buildings.

“Can you still do it?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if the elementals would be offended at not having natural rock anywhere in the area. I didn’t know much about them.

“Yes,” she started doubtfully. “The elemental plane doesn’t need the ‘natural’ elements. I’ll be far more put off than they will be.” Ah, an elf thing then. “I better start.”

She moved away from the vehicle to the center. I could tell that she was directly above where the circle room’s node once sat on. Stopping, she placed her hands together and almost appeared to enter a prayer. On the edges of my senses, I could feel something probing at the dimensional barriers, seeking the weaknesses in the fabric of reality. The cracks were being gently pried open. Not enough for a portal to form or, more dramatic yet, a tear.

“How long does this part take?” Matt loudly whispered.

“Not sure, never saw this done before. I think she made contact; now it’s just a matter of bringing it over.”

At that moment, the fabric of space around us seemed to ionize. It was almost like being hit by lightning. I staggered back, slightly disoriented and blinking away spots in my vision. Matt seemed oblivious to the brief light show, so it must not have been in his sensory range. However, I still saw flashes of lights that seemed to coincide with the dimensional reverberations I felt.

Another flash, and before us stood a ten-foot-tall vaguely human-shaped rock creature. I felt mystic energy bleeding off of it in substantial transparent gouts. Obviously, it came from a plane at a much higher level of mystical power. Just being in the same area made my body tingle very briefly as my body absorbed the magical energy being ejected from the creature. I sighed in pleasure, as a deep-seated background hunger I hadn’t even been conscious of faded away. For the first time in over a year, I didn’t feel I could literally eat a horse.

Naturally, as my hunger subsided, my hackles rose. For some reason, I found the presence of this creature an offense to me. I wanted to either attack it or shout that it leave. Great. My territorial instincts had come out to play. Lesser creatures, humans, werewolves, magic elf ladies, and vampires were beneath me, or at least to my primordial hindbrain, but this creature set them off. I had felt this way before with my own kind at home, where I was born, and with Mr. Evil, but this was the first time I had the sensation since I had crossed over. I didn’t miss it.

Gritting my teeth, I did my best to ignore the insane little voice in my head telling me to jump on the elemental and start pounding away. I began to turn away, but I caught the elemental merging in the glass-like surface surrounding us. I made a point to look away as I opened the police craft’s door and sat down. It was either sitting down and practicing breathing exercises or pacing back and forth, trying to burn away excess nervous energy.

“Wow, that was impressive,” Matt whistled nearby. “Is that thing dangerous?”

“Immensely. But not to us, at the moment. She seems to have it in hand,” I grunted out, tensely flexing my hands, almost as if I were kneading dough. From what I felt, that thing was about as powerful as an adult dragon. Significantly more powerful than me. At least it felt that way. This was making me feel more than slightly grumpy.

A few minutes later, the creature bubbled up from the perfectly flat surface like a monument rising from a lake. I scowled at it sourly. There were fewer flares of invisible energy being spat out by the elemental. This most likely meant its energy level had equalized with our own dimension’s. It felt less like a mystical juggernaut to my senses, but it still grated against my sensibilities. I wanted to stomp over to the elf and demand she send it back or just start dismantling the thing.

I did neither one. The creature would be dismissed once its job was complete. Any action I took could only delay its departure. Not to mention result in serious injury. Most likely mine. As it was, it stood silently, more a statue than a living being, in front of the elf. She nodded as if she was part of a conversation that the rest of us weren’t included in. Soon after, she waved her hands, and the cracks in the walls of the universe flexed and moaned again as if to a tune I suspect only I heard. The elemental quickly shrunk as its essence was pulled back through to the elemental plane.

As the accumulated energy began to dissipate and I saw Estella blink and come out of her meditative state, I walked over. “Did that go well?”

“Yes, the elements are truly kind and were glad to help...” she broke into an ecstatic monolog about how wonderful the creatures were and the joys of being one with nature or some rot. I zoned out but let her ramble for a minute. She had done something more useful than anything I could do at the moment and deserved a little of the afterglow. More importantly, I needed a second to calm down.

“Um, Miss Estella?” Matt didn’t know or care to indulge the crazy elf woman. “Could you tell us what you found?”

“Oh, sure,” she paused to gather her thoughts. “There is indeed a cavity below us. It appears to only house the central circles.”

“Which are those?” the young officer asked eagerly, though a bit dismayed that there was anything to be found.

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t know anything about circles, and my partners know even less.”

Matt stood frowning at this. I imagine he was wondering what to tell Conrad. I intervened, “If it was the ones in the center, then it was the gateway circle at the least. Also, the secondary protection circle survived and was at least active long enough to hold off the sludge until it solidified.”

“Can you tell anything else?”

“Not really, I think it’s safe to say most of the energy was used in that final meltdown, but some of the circles may be able to draw off the nexus enough to trigger something.”

“Is it safe?”

“There probably won’t be another meltdown, but I wouldn’t call it safe,” I offered as I walked to the area the elemental had submerged. “The very fact that you have a portal circle there means that at any time someone or something can reopen it. The circle master was very proficient, so it’s likely he keyed it to himself, but even so, I think it’s safe to say you don’t want him sneaking back this way.”

“But it’s buried. What are they going to do, stuck a hundred feet underground?”

“Do you honestly think that a mage that can open a door between worlds is going to be stopped by a little bit of rock, or... whatever we’re standing on?” I scuffed the gray glass-like surface under our feet.

“Damn, what are we going to do about this?” Matt appeared a bit frustrated at the lack of closure.

“Conrad knows. We talked about this possibility. Anyway, we’re done here. How about a ride home?”

“Or how about you drop us off at that lovely blighty area,” interrupted the brightly colored elven girl. I was mouthing ‘blighty’ to myself as she continued. “Derek promised to escort me on my errands.”

“You want to be dropped off in the Blight?” asked Matt dubiously. “I don’t know; it’s not as bad as it was a week ago since someone bought it. The gangs are gone at least...”

“Who bought the land?” I asked in puzzlement.

“I don’t know. The city was delighted to sell the land. We were worried about the homeless and gangs resettling in another part of town, but it hasn’t happened yet. I hear whoever it is, they are setting up private enforcement agencies to keep the peace.”

I rubbed my temples. That couldn’t end well. It sounded like a power play by an independent. I also doubted Vincent Fiero would be overjoyed to hear this. Given the consideration that the vampires appeared to be on a recruiting run, it may not be promising for the existing residents either.

“There are definitely fewer badly dressed people, but Faramond almost got crushed when one of those big floating machines dropped part of a house on him,” Estella volunteered.

“They are already having the construction barges drop the new prefabs? They must have money to burn if they’re moving that fast. If your friend was almost hurt, I should check to see if they are using proper safety guidelines,” Matt replied worriedly.

“Brutus probably just couldn’t read the big flashing red signs,” I inserted, causing the elf to pout. I found it amusing that Matt was more willing to be involved with the Blight now there were no gangs shooting missiles roaming the streets. It was remarkably sensible. “So, can you drop us off?”

I was now actually curious to see my old haunt. It wasn’t just that I wanted to see if the old besieged bookstores were still there, but it sounded like things were changing very quickly there. Considering everything else going on, the timing seemed suspicious, but it really didn’t seem to be Jin’s standard operating procedure from what I had heard of from Mei.

“Sure, why not? It’s closer to there than your house, shouldn’t be an issue.”

Matt dropped us off into a world gone mad. The Blight had entirely transformed in the few days I had been gone. In their slow majestic path above the expansive construction zone, massive floating cranes and barges blocked out much of the sunlight. Down on ground level, blocks had been cordoned off with enormous red warning holograms. If Faramond had ignored this light show and had a house land on him, then he really was as much as an idiot as I thought he was.

Most of the buildings had been leveled or removed, many over excavations, pipes, and conduits that appeared ready for hookup. These were plumbing, pipes, and power. One entire building to our right was gently floating toward one of these empty lots. The crane above it occasionally emitted a flickering light as the tractor field made an imperceptible correction.

“My, humans certainly have changed over the years,” the elf said with a mild hint of respect. The fact that she didn’t say ‘you humans’ depressed me. I just had to face the fact that my secret ID sucked. Maybe I should start wearing glasses. That seemed to work in the movies. Of course, I doubt too many superheroes left foot-long bloody teeth behind, either.

“Yep, don’t you miss the days when humans wore stinking hides and clubbed each other with sticks?” I would have teased her with references to dinosaurs, but I am not sure she would have understood. If I hadn’t lived here for over a year absorbing the monster movies, I doubt I would have either.

“I was a little too young to be allowed to go to the less well-developed roots at that time.” Now I was unsure if she was joking or not. I shrugged.

“I assume Odin has evolved past the bloody hide stage of the wardrobe,” I asked. A rather nasty look was thrown my way. I assume this verged on impinging upon her religion.

“We don’t have much reliance on science, but I haven’t seen anything here we don’t have already through magical means.”

“Mystic plumbing?”

“Fine, the Dvergar do have a construction guild that includes plumbing. I don’t count that as science, though,” she almost whined. “The waste products go straight to a hell dimension, though, so it’s not all science.”

“Don’t the demons mind?”

“It’s not any of the main ones. Just a tiny dimension we conquered way back. I don’t think there’s anything left in it. Living at least.”

“Why not use Hel’s dimension,” I prodded. She looked at me oddly and mouthed, “Hel.” Perhaps there was a different pronunciation for the goddess of death. Her eyes widened as she deciphered what I said, and she snorted with laughter.

“Oh my goodness! That... that would be priceless. Pumping shit to the land of the dead! Ancestors preserve us,” she broke down into giggles while covering her mouth at her own vulgarity. “I suspect that might just break the treaty.”

“What a way to start Ragnarök,” I inserted, inspiring another snort of laughter.

“Bah, that is just a legend the Sidhe started after the war to make the gods look bad. A couple of prophets spewed some vague doom and gloom tripe, and suddenly Loki is destined to start the end of the world. I read that prophecy in school; there’s nothing even resembling that.” She kicked a simulated cobbled stone out of the way in a disgustingly cute fit of pique. “As if Urd would allow her shiftless father to drag us into war. Besides, Thor and Loki wouldn’t be able to continue their drunken adventures together if the world ended.” She pinched her eyes closed and massaged her brow, and whimpered. “So embarrassing.”

Ah, Urd was the death goddess’s official name. I suppose it made more sense than naming the land and goddess the same. While we had been talking, we had been walking along the unblocked streets. The lots we passed more often were completed buildings. The architecture definitely was not modern, at least not as I have seen in the better parts of town. I had been stuck in the city for the last year, so that is all I had to compare it to. And the movies.

There had been a very aggressive retro age movement centering on the early twenty-first century. Jeremy and I had spent many days sitting and watching old movies from that era, and the rest of the world was also caught up in that trend. The style of the buildings wasn’t from that period either. I paused for a minute to survey the corner, and it finally came to me.

“This is the early twentieth century,” I exclaimed.

“It’s definitely less shiny than the rest of the city. Fewer straight lines too,” Estella volunteered.

“Are these cobblestones?” I wondered aloud as I stomped one foot on the road below us. “I saw a few movies about old New York, way back before the bombings; it sort of looked like this.”

“Why are they recreating the dirt and grime?” the Álfar asked.

Sure enough, these brand new buildings and cobblestones were pre-stained with blemishes and soot. While nothing looked old or broken down, it certainly didn’t look new. It looked lived it.

“It had to be the vampires,” I stated authoritatively.

“I still haven’t gotten over those things,” Estella interrupted. “Have you noticed they aren’t all ravaging beasts?”

“Yeah, boggles the mind...” I paused to give her a sideways glance. Sure enough, she was smiling at me. Well, smiling more than usual. “I mean... no, all vampires I have ever met have been merry old gents with sticks up their asses.” Was I getting worse at keeping secrets?

“Anyway, only the vampires would be nostalgic over this period and be pricks enough to include all the things that the people of the time didn’t like. Hopefully, one of the geriatric old souls didn’t like seeing lines to the local soup kitchen, or we’ll be seeing more authenticity than we can stomach.”

“All the old people I met always remember the good things and forget the bad parts,” she said uncertainly. As some sort of magic elf, I had to wonder how many old people she had met.

“Trust the vampires to bring forward all the burdens of the past along with an idealized version. I suppose we should be grateful they didn’t decide to obsess over the Victorian age and then decide to import Jack the Ripper.”

“Who’s Jack?” Estella asked, somewhat confused.

“Never mind,” I sighed. I missed Jeremy. He got my jokes or at least pretended to.

One of my bookstores was in this area. I stopped our drifting progress and looked for it. Frowning, I noted there was only an empty building at that location.

“Looks like they already have these buildings allocated for businesses,” the elf mentioned while pointing. Sure enough, above the building I was ruminating over, there was a holographic advertisement.

“Wasn’t this where the old bookstore was? It looks like the same business is moving in.”

“Considering the period they are going for, I bet they made sure they had a real bookstore. The two in the Blight were the only ones in the city.”

We had hardly seen anyone during our walk except a few workers and a couple of people in exoskeletons helping to connect the prefab blocks together. One of them seemed to be sitting on a bench eating his lunch, so I strolled over.

“Hey there. Where is everyone? This place used to be teeming with people?” I asked. More as in teeming with gangs, homeless, and generally crazy misanthropes.

The fellow paused from eating his sandwich and nodded to us. “Hello. Not sure. My company is from out of town. I was told that the people were offered positions in the company that bought this place to renovate. I think I heard something about training and indoctrination.”

“Oh. Thanks.” I waved goodbye as we continued on our way. Turning to my companion, I prompted, “Did that sound as ominous to you as it did to me?”

“Oh, don’t be silly. These are good vampires,” she stated with a dazzling smile. Wow, that girl knew how to lay on the sarcasm.

“So why are we out here anyway? It’s been great to see the not-so-old neighborhood, but I think you had something specific in mind.”

“I just wanted to see if all this new construction would disrupt the paths through Yggdrasil.”

I thought back to the area we walked through. There were three nodes a stone’s throw away but nothing within sight of our path. “Did we pass through these areas?”

“Most of them, just one main one left.” Nodes were pretty significant weak points in the dimensional fabric. If she wasn’t referring to them, these ‘roots’ could use the fabric’s more subtle gaps and cracks. I wasn’t sure if these roots were metaphysical concepts or just different terminology. “Here it is.”

I stared. Here was a prefab building that was leaning like the Tower of Pisa. Cocking my head, I started to walk around the structure, trying to figure out what had happened. The rear of the building began to answer my question as I noticed the entire corner area was gone, causing the building to sink almost ten feet. These constructions were pretty strong because even with a large part of the supports removed; they showed no sign of imminent collapse. Or rather a further collapse.

Moving up to the gap, I looked closer and grinned. There were handprints embedded in the walls near the break—large handprints. I touched the tooth hanging at my neck from the delicate gold chain I had attached. I had a feeling I knew which building had landed on top of Faramond.

“Darn it,” exclaimed the elf in a cute display of dismay as she came up beside me, stamping her feet. “They put a building right on top of it. It’s going to get blown up the next time the roots come through.”

“Can I assume that this is a Faramond-shaped hole?”

“Yeah, the building came down right as he came out. Probably hurt like...”

“Being punched through four walls? My heart bleeds for him. Really.”

“Um, yeah. What are we going to do? This entire thing is going to come down the next time the roots come through.”

I looked at her oddly as she said ‘we’. How did I get involved in this again? Was this a host thing or something else? “I’ll have Jeremy track down the owners. If they don’t do anything, we can talk to Conrad. Where and how much do they need to leave clear?”

“From here to over there,” she gestured from the hole in the wall to the other side of the interior wall. I stretched my senses over that area, and although I could feel the typical gaps in the world, I couldn’t feel anything notably different. When these ‘roots’ were inactive, they didn’t feel any different.

“I’ll make sure they know. If they ignore me...” I shrugged to finish my thought. “I think I can convince them. Maybe. Conrad, if no one else.”

“Great! Let’s head back now,” she strode purposely towards the front of the building. She paused, “Do you know anyone around here that would accept gold for a ride back to your home?”

Normally I would just walk, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to trek all the way home trailing a tired elf. She was less annoying than I thought she would be, but I still didn’t want to push my luck. “I’ll ask the workman to borrow his... wait; he’ll only have an implant. I’ll just ask him to call a taxi.”

I have to get a wrist comm now that I think I can keep it from blowing up.