February 10, 2008

At the Investigator’s Office

Kyna interrogated the man that they had captured outside her house again.  She noticed that he was not rattled about being thrown into a wall by force.  He said that he was paid two days fees and the client would come back to collect his report the next day.  The client was six foot five, 240 pounds, and looked like a linebacker.  Walter transformed in order to intimidate him, but he was not impressed.  Kyna asked if the client was a practitioner.  He said said he did not think so, but didn’t check.  He thought he was a personal trainer.

The man said that he had only started following her at the diner.  He thought it was a mundane surveillance job.  Ely asked if he had realized that Kyna was not married.  The man did not believe her.  Ely engaged him in conversation while Kyna studied his tattoo.  Kyna overwhelmed the tattoo spell with magical force.  He passed out.  They ordered pizza to the house next door.

Walter called Zoe at the diner and told her to meet them at the investigator’s address and to bring a first aid kit and baklava.    They had brought the man back into his office after the fight.  Walter noticed that the office was decorated in 1945 style, including a manual typewriter and a rotary telephone.  There was a Rolodex, and he recognized that the cards were written in shorthand.  

While the others searched the office, Walter went downstairs to the Starbucks, which was closed for some unknown reason, and waited there as if for it to open to keep watch on the entrance.  Kyna found a flask of whiskey, can of breath mints, rolling papers, and a bag of loose tobacco.  Zoe found a dozen wool suits, fedoras, and identical shoes.  The investigator was wearing a matching outfit.

Then Zoe heard someone coming up the stairs.  Whoever it was sneaked past Walter.  There was a knock on the door.  Ely said to come in.  The newcomer was six foot five, 240 pounds, and looked like a linebacker.  Kyna seemed to recognize him from a mage convention in Las Vegas.  The man said Kyna could help him by giving him a divorce.  Ely verified that the provided marriage license was legitimate, but it did not appear to be Kyna’s signature.  Then Ely’s phone rang.  Walter told Ely that he had not seen anyone.  Ely told him to come upstairs and watch from the hall.

Ely told Mr. John Smith that he thought Kyna’s signature was a forgery.  She said that she did not remember marrying him.  Smith said that she had been quite drunk at the time.  As far as she could tell, Smith believed what he was saying.  Kyna conjectured that magic was used to make her forget the incident.  She recognized that a hex had been used, but it was probably not aimed specifically at her.

Smith said that she had said that she would not sleep with him unless they were married, so she agreed to marry him.  Now he wanted an annulment.  Then Walter realized that the client was already in the office and entered.  And Ely set the marriage certificate on fire.  Smith said that it was a copy.  He said that the background check revealed the marriage, he had thought it had been a joke, but it was legal.  So he wanted an annulment so that he could marry his sweetheart.  Then something crashed through the window in the door and hit Walter in the back of the head.  It was a bundle of dynamite attacked to a ticking clock.

Zoe ran over to the door and examined the bomb.  Kyna ran over and threw the bomb into the hallway.  Walter transformed into cat form.  The client shot at the panther.  Ely interposed himself between the client and Walter.  

Zoe pulled down a filing cabinet, which revealed a window, but fell on top of her.  Kyna put up a force barrier between Walter and the door.  Walter sensed something in the hall.  Then something hit the barrier and someone cursed.  Then leapt into the barrier.  The client laughed with a western accent, put the gun away, and pulled the filing cabinet off Zoe.  Ely saw a seven foot tall, pale white man with pointed ears in the hall.  An elf.

Zoe asked Smith to pull down the next cabinet to reveal the whole window.  Kyna readied herself for the explosion.  Walter leapt onto the back of the couch the detective was sleeping on.  He looked out the window and saw a dark elf.  He told the others, but it came out as a roar.  Ely attracted the elf’s attention.

Zoe turned and saw a cute basketball player in the hallway.  Kyna focused on the barrier.  The elf turned off the bomb and knocked on the door.  Walter told the others, but it sounded like a roar.  The client saw the elf and responded with a different accent.  Ely noticed the elf at the door.

Zoe tried to open the window, but it was painted shut and appeared to not have ever been cleaned.  She called for assistance.  Kyna’s barrier faded away.  The elf asked if they could talk.  Kyna reminded him that he threw the bomb.  The elf replied that he expected them to figure out how to disarm it.  Ely asked if he had an appointment.  The elf said that he did.  He gave the bomb to Ely.  John Smith looked terrified.

The Story

Walter transformed back to human form.  Kyna asked if the elf had hexed her.  He replied that it had been the best joke he had done in centuries.  Kyna used her Sight to look at the elf.  It was like a golem made of magic.  She decreed that she and John were going to annul the marriage.  John said that he had the papers, but he was blinded.  Kyna noted that his eyes were bleeding, but only in her Sight.

Kyna asked why the elf appeared now.  He said that he wanted to avoid them hunting him down when they figured it out.  Kyna said that she would not hunt him down for this incident.  The elf said he would consider the event closed and in the past.  He then asked if Walter, Ely and Zoe if they agreed as participants in the joke.  Ely asked why.  The elf said that he had expected a fight, but the joke didn’t work.  Ely determined that he was not lying, but knew that elves never spoke the whole truth.  Walter and Ely agreed, but Zoe did not.

Kyra reviewed the annulment document and agreed to its terms.  They signed the document, Smith handed the carbon copy to Kyna, and put the filing cabinets back.  When they looked up, the elf was gone.   They verified that the detective was still alive, and left and went back to the diner to talk to Grandma about Zoe’s heritage.

The Group

  • Zoe Kallas – waitress at grandparents’ diner in Arlington; journalism graduate looking for a real journalism job. (Changling who has no clue, mother was fey of Summer Court)
  • Ely Vantide – debt collector – all kinds of debt. (Emissary of Power for a Dragon)
  • Kyna Quinlan – wizard of Irish descent. New to the White Council. Muscle for Ely
  • Walter Ballard – were-leopard and therapist to the Supernatural.