Ray retraced his steps to the university. Night would have cloaked him, but the

constant glow of the vents in his arm gave him the profile of moving will of wisps.

He decided to live with it as long as he didn’t have any trouble.

He entered the university grounds and realized he had no way of knowing where

Samuel Broadiron lived. He should have asked for an address from Lord Brian’s

group.

It should be an easy thing to fix with his lamp.

“Lamp, can you see through the walls?,” asked Ray. “We’re looking for an older gent,

maybe a teacher, living on the grounds.”

Affirmative.

Blue light shone from the metal hand. Ray lifted the hand to give it a better view for

whatever that meant to the fire in it. The beam rotated once, lighting up the buildings

it played on.

Markers appeared in a section on the other side of the campus. Ray started forward,

trying to think of some way to narrow it down further. He would have to knock on

doors, and he didn’t like that all.

“Any thoughts,” asked Ray.

The lamp took a moment to go over the information provided by Lord Brian’s people,

the scanning through the buildings, and its thoughts on the profile of the target.

It lit a marker on the likeliest door.

Ray walked to the door. He used the back of the metal hand to knock. He waited, eyes

roving the rest of the campus. He didn’t want to deal with a security guard just trying

to keep out the riffraff.

Steps told him someone was coming to the door. He waited. How did he get some

cooperation from an old guy who had seen it all? The door opened. He winced at the

person standing there. She glared at him.

“Hello again,” said Ray. “I’m sorry to bother you, but a recent acquaintance said I

should come here and talk to his Uncle Sam.”

“His uncle?,” said the head librarian. She had let her hair down and changed into a

lighter dress. “And who would this acquaintance be?”

“Lord Brian of Mornington,” said Ray. “He likes to wear red, carries a bow instead

of a sword.”

“Who is it, Sandra?,” said the voice of a man from inside the house.

“It’s the magician I was telling you about,” said Sandra.

“I’m not a magician,” said Ray. She frowned at him, then gestured at his magic arm.

“This was a stand-in for my real arm,” said Ray. “Can we talk?”

“Go ahead,” said Sandra.

“I just need some information on the fight at the last demon well,” said Ray. “Lord

Brian suggested I talk to your husband.”

“Not my husband,” said the librarian.

“Pardon,” said Ray.

“Why don’t you come in?,” said the tallest, thinnest man Ray had ever met. His face

had taken a beating with an ugly stick. His hair had retreated from the battle of the

bald spot a long time ago. “That way we can get this over with fast, and send you on

your way.”

“Thanks for that,” said Ray.

Sam gestured for Ray to come in and take a seat at the kitchen table. The place was

one room on the bottom, and maybe a set of rooms upstairs. Sandra glared at Ray the

whole time.

“What kind of questions do you have, young man?,” asked Sam. He sat down on the

other side of the table. He turned in his chair so he could stretch his legs out.

“A question of timing has come up with the four demon wells,” said Ray. “They

seemed to have all happened in the same part of the year. I was wondering if you

remembered anything special that was going on.”

“Anything special?,” said Sam. He seemed amused by the question.

“Neffer and Lord Brian feel that there should have been something at the scene to

mark it,” said Ray. “Or something in the timing since they all happened in the same

time of year.”

“Nothing exceptional springs to mind,” said Sam. “The only news I can think of was

that the secret constellation was supposed to be seen by stargazers.”

“The secret constellation?,” asked Ray.

“Two constellations known as the the Boar, and the Fox pass through each other,”

said Sandra. “They form a third constellation when they do that. It’s called the Face

of Ba’al.”

“This happens every fifty years?,” said Ray.

“Near about,” said Sam. “There are a lot of miniature star movements, but that’s one

of the bigger ones.”

“Everybody but me knows this?,” said Ray.

“I would imagine so,” said Sandra. “It’s an optical effect. The stars aren’t really close

enough to form a face.”

“How long does this effect last?,” asked Ray.

“A few days,” said Sam. “I think the Abyssal attack happened in the middle of the

cycle when the image was the largest.”

“That’s good,” said Ray. “I thought the door summoned demons. What is an

Abyssal?”

“These creatures ate everything in their path,” said Sam. “They were eating reality.

Demons don’t do that.”

“Why summon them?,” asked Ray. “Sounds dangerous to let loose a mindless horde

of gluttons.”

“I think if you knew that, you would know whom you’re looking for,” said Sandra.

“One more question, and I’ll be on my way,” said Ray.

“What is it?,”asked Sam. He made a gesture with his hands.

“Did you happen to see anything on the ground that looked like a circle?,” asked Ray.

“Lord Brian and his group think there’s a second element at work to open the door.”

“When we arrived, the things were spreading out and eating anything in their way,”

said Sam. “I didn’t see anything like that.”

“The monsters had already dug a pit and were expanding it when we arrived,”

explained Sandra. “Unless the circle was supposed to contain them, which it didn’t,

it was eaten first.”

“Thanks,” said Ray. “I appreciate this. Have a good night.”

He stood and bowed to the both of them. He started towards the door to let himself

out.

“Is there another door opening?,” asked Sam.

Ray paused to look at them. He could tell that Sandra wanted him to say no. The look

on her face said it all. That last one must have been horrible.

“I was sent to stop one from happening,” said Ray. “I plan to do that. Knowing that

this face thing is a possible trigger gives me a time limit to finding the rest of what

I need.”

“Good luck,” said Sam. “I’ll spread the word around to get some of the old hands

ready.”

“Thanks,” said Ray. He went to the door. He bowed one more time and stepped out

into the night.

“We need to look at those sites,” said Ray. “Maybe there’s a clue there on the

ground.”

Affirmative.

“How fast can you carry me out to those places?,” asked Ray.

A few minutes to each one.

The lamp put a visual map in front of Ray so he could see the routes in the air from

the town. Apparently he had heard the name in some background noise and Barley

was written in where the pointer for him stood.

“I think we should look at number one first,” said Ray. “I know it’s the farthest one

away, but it was also the original door. We can look at the others on the way back.

Can you give me an estimate on when the Face of Ba’al is supposed to appear in the

sky? That will give us something of a deadline to beat.”

Affirmative.

A countdown in seconds appeared at the bottom of Ray’s field of view. It ran

backwards in blue numbers.

“Let’s get out there while we can,” said Ray. “I would love to look around in the

daytime, but we don’t have that much time left before the constellations line up.”

Affirmative.

Blue light wrapped around Ray. He exploded off the ground. He laughed as he cut

across the sky like a blue comet. All too soon, the lamp brought him down to the first

site on his list.

“Lamp, throw some light out for us,” thought Ray. “I can’t see my normal hand.”

Affirmative.

A small light shone from Ray’s metal hand. He lifted the hand up and directed the

beam around. The first pit seemed to be full of water from the two hundred odd years

of rain that must have come through at one point or another.

“Do you see anything?,” Ray thought. He admitted he didn’t see anything but a rough

circle torn out of the ground like an unfinished swimming pool.

Blue flame indicated marks in the ground close to the edge of the circle.

“Writing?,” asked Ray. “Writing for a summoning circle?”

Affirmative.

“This is almost the size of a pool,” said Ray. He pointed his light at the edges on the

other side. “Whatever came through here wouldn’t have been that big.”

Affirmative.

“But if the Abyssals destroyed reality once here, the circle couldn’t stop the things

from eating their way out of containment,” said Ray.

Affirmative.

“Why keep doing it then?,” asked Ray. “They knew the door opened. They knew the

Abyssals couldn’t be contained. Why keep opening the door for them? What are we

missing?”

Unknown.

“Lamp, take a sighting on where the Face would have been to start this off if you

can,” thought Ray. “I know it’s been two hundred plus years. We’re going to have to

do the same thing at the other three sites.”

Affirmative.

Ray didn’t usually buy nihilism as a motive, but he was afraid that was what he was

looking at with the way things had gone down. A random selection site and time

meant you couldn’t hit the target. That meant you were trying to cause a disaster

dealing with something that liked to eat reality.

And destroying reality to take everyone with you was nihilism on a grand scale. He

would love to punch this guy in the face.

A blue marker formed an arrow in the center of the lake.

“Let’s look at the others,” said Ray. “Maybe I’ll have a clue on how to proceed from

there.”

Affirmative.

Blue light leaped into the sky and vanished.