“You’re back late. Or early. Can never tell when it gets to these hours.” Marshall hadn’t expected much when he walked into the office of Seth Lawson the day after forensics initially arrived on scene, but somehow he became disappointed when he saw Maxwell Weil in the chair behind the desk. Feet up and propped against it. It only worsened his mood.

“It’s a matter of perspective. Were you concerned?”

“Oh no. You’re a big man with a big job. You can handle yourself. Though it does mean that missed catching up on some… events.”

“I’ll trust you to catch me up then. Before that however, I need to catch you up on some developments on my end.”

“Oh? Such as what?” Marshall sighed and sat himself in the armchair in the corner of the office, the cushion making a soft sighing sound as he did so. Then leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees, rubbing his face slightly.

“There’s a suspected parasite in the area.” Maxwell paused, then took his feet off of the desk and also leaned forwards. He didn’t say anything, he just waited for Marshall to continue. “I… there have been three cases found, which we took care of, but there is a suspected source, a nest, which we haven’t found yet.”

“Holy fuck.” Weil’s voice was weak, and barely broke the silence in the air. He leaned back again and rubbed his face as well. “What a time as well. Will we need to be pulled from our current case?”

“No. The information I gave about ours was enough evidence to cause concern with the higher ups, but if the situation worsens, we may have to be pulled out.”

“That’s… Well it certainly makes my news look pathetic.” Maxwell managed a weak laugh and Marshall internally applauded him for it.

“Already good news then. Ready when you are.”

“First things first, we have a witness, Keira, saying that she saw Archer going through Seth’s office looking for something. Here’s the thing, she’s the only witness. No one else in the station mentioned seeing either of them.”

“I see. Did you pick up any residue of anything when you were walking to the station afterwards?”

“No. If there was anything it must have faded before I arrived.” Marshall furrowed his brow and drummed his fingers against his leg before nodding.

“Well we can’t really do much about that. If he is the perpetrator then we’d have to go off of more evidence then a single witness.”

“It would also make sense on why he would want to get rid of evidence though. And he is our most likely suspect. It would be a shame if an anonymous tip like that caused a house search.” Despite himself, Marshall found a smile forming on his face.

“You are right about that… Hm. I suppose if we have a witness saying that they saw him in a place that he isn’t supposed to be then it might be worth investigating. Nothing major. Take a few samples for forensics to compare with some taken from the scene.”

“Indeed. A house search shouldn’t be out of the question.” He hummed noncommittedly and the room fell into uncomfortable silence again. Another question occurred to him.

“How did you hear about this anyway? Did you talk to Keira?”

“I did actually. And that wasn’t the only thing she talked about as well. The other major worry she brought up was that recently she spotted a woman in formal dress following her around.” This gave Marshall pause.

“And what do you think that means?”

“Fae.”

“You think that the fae are after her? Why? And what did the… person following her do?”

“I’m saying that it’s a definite possibility and if I had to guess, it would have something to do with the mark she has. Though for the moment, the woman seems to be keeping her distance. Supposedly.”

“Supposedly?”

“I don’t think I entirely trust her testimony. Fae are very good at blending in with their surroundings and often use glamours and other tricks to do so. If she spotted a fae following her, it either meant that for some reason it wanted her to notice it, or it didn’t just stay at a distance and instead approached her. In which case, she would be lying to us for some reason.”

“Ah. I suppose in that case we would also have to figure out why she would want to lie to us.”

“There are no good outcomes that I can think of if that truly is the situation. And I’m too cynical to hope for one of those good ones.”

“The only question is, what do we do about it?” Maxwell was quiet for a long time, as was Marshall. He had a small idea of what Maxwell might say, but it would still be better to ask him upfront.

“Well… If you were to ask me, I would say nothing at the moment. We’re currently investigating her kidnapping and she has a vested interest in the case coming to a close, so she won’t interfere with that. Once we do have it solved… it might be worth looking into that mark a little more. As well as pushing Keira a little more. I don’t want to say we should stay after the case, because I am getting a little antsy, but…”

“I understand. Speaking of which, didn’t you get an expert to look at the mark on her wrist?”

“I did, and oddly enough, she didn’t know what it does. Or more accurately, what made it.”

“She doesn’t recognise it?”

“Again, not entirely. She recognises as the template is the same that is used on contracts from a certain group of entities. She says that marks like that are a way to siphon power from separate dimensions onto this one, and typically retain a trace of being that offered it, but she doesn’t know the exact nature of the entity that gave Keira hers. Then she went on to say that since she doesn’t recognise that symbol in particular, it hasn’t had many dealings with people through history. It hasn’t left its mark on the world. Which, apparently, leads to three conclusions. The first two are the most likely ones. It’s either too weak and wasn’t worth of anyone’s time to make a deal with, or its too young for there to be a large enough record of it. She says she’s leaning towards the former as even ‘young upstarts’ have some record.”

“What about the third?” Marshall asked with a hint of exasperation.

“The third option she gave was extremely descriptive. ‘Something weird has happened,’ she said.”

“Hm. Useful. So what was the final verdict on the mark? Do we need to keep Keira in custody?”

“Without knowing the exact entity that made the mark, she says it’s a big gamble on what Keira is offering and what she gets in return. If it was one of the bigger names then she would have recommended disposal, but since she doesn’t know it, cautious surveillance may be more appropriate. Even if she can’t recognise it as something inherently harmful, we can’t let our guards down considering the average nature of what makes those deals.”

“What sort of thing could Keira be offering that doesn’t warrant immediate detention?”

“From my previous dealings it’s mostly the latent power in other people. Essentially a number of sacrifices. Or sacrifices at regular periods.” Marshall frowned and turned his eyes downwards to the floor again before Maxwell continued. “That’s from my personal experience. The expert says that since she made it for her own survival, it won’t be after her power, and it might not be after other people’s. Some just want things.”

“Things?” Marshal repeated, eyebrow raised.

“Yep. Information, other supernatural beings, objects of power… that sort of thing.”

“So there is a chance that what she has to do or get doesn’t pose a threat to other humans.”

“A chance.” Marshall leaned back in his chair and contemplated another option that he had heard of.

“Is there a chance that it could be going for a summoning?” Weil stayed quiet. “Maxwell…”

“Those only happen if both the being and the practitioners involved have enough power. I don’t think that Keira has enough power to take something from its home dimension to this one. In fact, I don’t think that any one person can summon something by themselves. And again, there is a high likelihood that the being itself is too weak to support the summoning anyway.”

“I can think of a few particularly dangerous… people, that could summon something without help. Though I suppose that I would hesitate to call them people.”

“Could we please call them people?” Despite the heavy atmosphere, Marshall found himself huffing out a laugh.

“I don’t want to discount the option though; we should keep it on our minds so we can act if it is the case.”

“You don’t want to take action?”

“You know why I don’t want to do that.” Marshall let out a deep sigh. “I don’t want to do that to someone unless I absolutely have to. Especially when she has already been through so much.”

“It’s for the best, Marshall. We can’t balance the needs of few against the needs of many.” Marshall levelled a glare at Weil, who looked away and scratched the back of his head. “Either way, it would be for the best if we put a detail on her.”

“We can’t.” Maxwell’s head snapped forward towards Marshall.

“What?”

“We have a potential parasite infestation, remember? Any and all spare personnel are being dedicated towards that.”

“…What about some of the normal officers here? Say that we’re afraid that the kidnapper will strike again and that she needs protection.”

“Do you trust them to handle a supernatural situation with the amount of delicacy required for there to be no casualties?” Maxwell pursed his lips and nodded slowly.

“That’s a good point. Though I would say that I trust a teen girl less.”

“That is also a good point… So we assign an officer to her for her own safety and have them cover us while we can focus on arresting the person responsible for her situation. And if we can get the person responsible, she might trust us to help get her out of whatever deal she has.”

“I’ve already gotten progress on gaining her trust. She has my number and said that she’ll contact me if she’s in trouble.” Marshall nodded slowly before pausing, eyes widening.

“Did you give her your personal number?” Weil froze and made to stand up.

“It’s been a long day and I’m sure you haven’t slept in a long time I better get going-“

“You gave a victim your personal number?! Do you have no respect for protocol?” Maxwell opened his mouth before Marshall cut him off again. “No, of course you don’t. You’re not a free agent anymore, Weil. You don’t get to disregard professionalism whenever it suits you.”

“It doesn’t merely service me! It helps with the whole case. Keira’s trust in us is vital in order to get to the bottom off this.”

“There are procedures for this for reasons Weil! To protect the victims, to protect the detectives- us. They are there to protect us, and you have just put-“

“You’re overreacting, Marshall. I get it. You were with the military, you’re used to following protocol and orders, but there’s a usefulness to bending around those rules as well. You’ve just got to give it a chance.”

“Those rules were there so that we could survive. Those protocols are responsible for keeping me alive during my time in the military. I realise that the threat is a lot less imminent than it used to be, but it is no less real. We need to be careful, and what you did was incredibly reckless.” Finally something seemed to get through to him. Maxwell sat down from his half crouch and propped his feet back up onto the desk, using the leverage to lean backwards and look at the ceiling.

“I can’t take it back you know.”

“I know. I won’t call this in with the higher ups. You’re still new, they don’t need to know.” Marshall cracked another small smile. “And besides, it may yield some results. She now has a reliable way to contact us if she needs any help.”

“Thanks for looking on the bright side.” He nodded in response. “Now that we have all of that out of the way, how should we… conduct the search of Archer’s house?”

“Personally, I think that you should handle the paperwork. Being that you have seniority here.”

“Really? I think you rookies should do more paperwork in order to make yourselves more reliable in the future. Good practise and all that.”

“Ah. I suppose if it’s for the practise. It’s fortunate that we don’t need it any time soon, eh?”

“You know what? I’ll handle it. You just need to look through the photos of the crime scene and make a list of items we need to look out for. Such as the paint used for the runes, any suspicious knives…”

“I know what to look out for. This isn’t my first investigation.”

“Are you sure?” For a brief moment Maxwell looked like he was going to argue, but then he saw the look on Marshall’s face.

“Very funny. When should we do the search?”

“As soon as possible. The paperwork should be processed in a few days, so it shouldn’t be too long a wait.”

“That would make it a work day as well. The smaller the chance of Archer being there, the smaller the chance of him being in the way.”

“That’s an added benefit. Also, Archer doesn’t have a job.” When he glanced at Maxwell’s face, he sighed. “Did you even read his file?”

“I skimmed it. If he doesn’t have a job though, how was he living when he wasn’t at his parents house? Were they giving him a large enough allowance that he could survive on his own?”

“Neither of them have that high paying jobs though.”

“I’ll add it to the interrogation list.” Marshall glared at him. “What? It could be financial fraud. It’s a very big crime you know. Worthy of jail time.”

“Fine. Now move along. I’m guessing you haven’t gotten much sleep recently either.” Maxwell nodded then made to stand up again, and this time Marshall didn’t stop him. Nor did he when Weil finally left the room. With a sigh Marshall stood up and placed himself behind the desk, fishing out some documents and other pieces of paper, and preparing himself for a long day of work.