The Sharp Edge of the Veil – Chapter 3 [MF][Urban Fantasy]

This is not a stand-alone story. Please read previous chapters first. Links in comments

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Magic for Dummies

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“So, you’re a real-life wizard then?” Sophia said, staring out the hole in the wall of my office.

“Yup.”

“Fu-uck.”

I glanced over her. I knew how she felt. I remembered the first time I saw magic being done. It’s a world-altering moment for anyone.

“I would offer you a drink, but it seems I accidentally blew up my drink collection.”

“That’s okay,” Sophia said, her eyes still on the horizon.

There were sirens in the distance. I sighed. There would be a lot of explaining to do. Hopefully only one cop car turned up. Mind wiping more than two cops at a time took its toll and I was dead tired.

We sat in silence for a while and watched a large harvesting machine run slowly over the field bringing in the harvest. The smell of wheat lay thick in the air.

“I think the police are coming,” Sophia said, not moving her eyes from the horizon.

I got up and went out to the road. The police car pulled up a few meters away from me. Thankfully I only saw the one. The officers got out and I walked up to greet them. Good thing that Sophia had made me aware of my misplaced nose, otherwise this could have been a very awkward interaction with the law.

“It was only a gas cannister that blew up,” I said gently placing a spell on each of their minds.

I saw their blank eyes look back at me. My knees buckled a little, but I managed to remain standing.

“You can go back and report that no damage was done. Only a large bang.”

They both nodded and got back in their patrol car and drove off.

“You okay, man?”

I turned to see Hashid, the owner of the car shop next door standing by the other corner of the building.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Just a little accident. No harm done.”

Hashid nodded.

“Let me know if you need any help with the car,” he said, nodding at the Mustang.

“Thanks. But she’s running smoothly.”

“All right, man,” Hashid said and went back to his place.

I walked back into the office where Sophia was sitting absolutely still, staring at the horizon. She seemed perfectly nice now, but I still couldn’t get over that she had kicked me in the balls. I sat down next to her.

“What happened,” I asked her.

“What?” she said slowly turning towards me.

“You said you needed help. What happened.”

She blinked and seemed to relive some recent horror.

“If I ever hear that song again in my entire life, I think I’ll kill myself.”

It took me a moment to understand what she was saying. Then I laughed. Siri definitely had another rabbit coming. Sophie looked at me.

“Do you think this is funny? I didn’t sleep a second last night. First there were demons dancing on my bed.”

“Daemons.”

Sophie stared at me.

“That’s what I said!”

“No. You said demons. What danced on your bed was definitely daemons. Call them demons and they’ll bite your kneecaps.”

Sophie’s mouth fell open.

“Demons. Christian things that tortures you after you’re dead. Daemons. Beings summoned from another dimension. Not the same thing. Believe you me.”

Sophie blinked. Then she stared out at the horizon again. I reminded myself that this was not the best moment for an introduction to the otherworldly.

“Then what happened.”

I waited for a few moments and just when I was about to repeat the question she answered.

“Then … *it* arrived. It looked just like me. But with fiery eyes.”

*That’s Christina alright*, I thought nodding along to Sophia’s story.

“And she started screaming and cursing and telling me that she would eat me alive while I slept if I didn’t get the wizard back.”

She looked at me.

“That’s you, right?”

I nodded. This was where she would say that it had all been too much and she would leave on a very long vacation and never return. Perfect.

“Can you move back in? I’ll let you have one room and that place where you have all the strange stuff.”

Now it was my turn to stare at her. She wasn’t leaving? Running away screaming? After a night with Christina and the band? After what I could only guess was twelve hours straight of *Sweet Home Alabama*?

“Wha−?”

“All right! Two rooms. And you can use the kitchen and dining room when you want to.”

I blinked. What was wrong with this woman? She had just seen magic for her first time after having been beset by daemons and a ghost for a whole night. And she still wanted to live there?

“Please say you’ll move back in. I promise that I will not hurt you again. Please.”

The big old house had at least twenty rooms, half of which I hadn’t even been in. I didn’t use more than two rooms anyway. It was just … I looked at the woman in front of me. She was so incredibly similar to the ghost that I pounded basically every night. It felt utterly strange not having my dick inside her already. I could make this work, right? And I absolutely had to find out if my magic worked on her or not. I was too tired now to try anything. Failure may only be caused by my exhaustion. I had to wait.

“And the Lady keeps her bedroom?”

“The who?”

“The Lady Christina. The ghost you met last night? Your ancestor?”

Sophia’s jaw fell like a brick.

All right. Now she’s breaking. Perfect.

“That’s who that was?” Sophie said incredulously after a long while.

Poor girl. She was really in for a ride. I nodded. She sat there in stunned silence just staring at me. Time to breakdown. T-minus ten. Nine. Eight.

“Okay. She keeps her bedroom.”

I was thoroughly impressed by this woman. Did this run in their family? Was that why Christina’s ghost was so strong? But in that case why hadn’t some other relative come to claim the place long ago? A lot of questions. One could say a conundrum. And I love me one of those.

*

We arrived back at the mansion after lunch. Sophia was driving an expensive looking sports car that was way too new to have me inside it. She did offer me a ride though, which was nice, but like the gentleman I am not, I declined.

We decided on some ground rules. Me not going into certain rooms unless she asked me to. Her never coming into my laboratory. Unless I asked her to. And no hitting the daemons, even if they deserved it. After this had been taken care of, I went back to the lab. Luckily, she hadn’t touched anything, and I went back to studying the lock of hair I had gotten from Luna.

I stayed in the lab until late at night when Christina came to knock on the door, wearing a two centuries old ball gown. She was even friendlier than usual and once more let me cum where I pleased. This time I chose her mouth. Afterwards she stayed with me, laying there stroking my chest. Also not something I was used to. But it wasn’t unpleasant, although I wanted to get some sleep so I could get back to work in the morning.

“What do you think of her,” Christina asked.

I looked down at her. She looked slightly translucent but felt very real against me. I stroked her hair slowly.

“Sophia?”

She nodded.

“She’s a tough one,” I admitted.

“Yes.”

The tone of the ghost’s voice held something powerful that piqued my interest. Christina very rarely talked to me unless it had something to do with her having my body as she wanted. There must be something very special about Sophia. That much was clear.

“I like her,” Christina said, then she got up and stood over me. “Now I want you once more. I didn’t get to have you last night.”

I sighed and let her have her way with me once more.

*

It took two more days before I realized what was wrong. None of the analytical experiments that I ran on the lock of hair yielded a single result. I was literally tearing my own hair off to figure out the problem.

I had just been mixing a basic essence litmus solution and was dipping hair after hair of the lock into the mixture without any result at all. I screamed for a bit. It always feels better when you scream for a bit. Then I dipped another hair into the solution. Still nothing. I screamed some more and smashed a few beakers. Smashing beakers is one of my favorite things to do when angry, and accounts for a significant part of my consumables expense account. I tore my hair and as one of it tumbled into the test tube containing the mixture it instantly turned from its inert grey to a flashing purple of a wizard’s soul essence.

“Fuck,” I breathed and picked up another hair from Luna’s mother’s lock.

I ran over to my magical microscope and put it under the lens. Then I saw it. The mark.

*

“I have to see Luna.”

The meatball of a man that guarded the door didn’t utter a word.

“It’s important.”

Still no reaction. I could of course just order him to let me in. But that was never good for long term relationships. I threw my hands in the air and was just about to leave when the door opened behind him.

“Come on in, wizard,” Luna said.

I followed her down a long, bare hallway painted in a dull beige. Andy had given me the address to their headquarters. A nondescript door just north of Möllevångstorget. It was actually not more than two blocks away from The Pie and the Piper, where I’ve spent many a long evening drinking too many beers with my colleagues. It’s the only decent place in Malmö for any practitioner or supernatural being to spend an evening without getting into trouble.

This place, the headquarters of the Latvian mob in Malmö, smelled of old cigarette smoke, stale beer and something else. Something sweeter. We passed at least five doors before she opened one of them.

“This way.”

I warily stepped inside the room. I had no idea why I had insisted on coming here. I could have just left it alone and let whatever or whoever it was that was infiltrating the family continue with what they were doing. But a mystery always gets me going.

The room was surprisingly cozy given the asylum like corridor outside. Two men stood inside the door, eyeing me as I found an armchair to sit down in. They were making me more nervous than I would admit. Again. I could probably have the one guy shoot the other with the gun sticking out of his pants. Or just make the gun go off down into his pants. Always a fun party trick.

“A drink?”

I nodded and Luna poured something out of a decanter. Two glasses. One she handed to me, the other one she held in her lithe hand.

“You’re not going to make me take my clothes of again, are you?” she said with a wicked smile.

I hid my emotions with the glass and swallowed down a big gulp. Cognac. Not a bad one either. The liquid burned its way down my throat and soothed my aching nerves. Why was I so nervous about being here?

“Of course not. I’m a gentleman.”

That was a lie. I probably would have had her on her knees with my cock in her mouth if it wasn’t for the two guards.

“You can leave now.”

I heard a door open and shut behind me and the room went silent. I hadn’t realized how heavily one of the guards had been breathing until they were gone. Luna downed the contents of her glass and put it down on the table next to her.

“Why don’t you enjoy your drink,” she said as she went down on her knees between my legs.

Moments later my cock was indeed in her mouth. And I did enjoy my drink. Thoroughly. After she was done and had swallowed my load she got up and sat down in the chair next to me. She put one shapely leg over the other and studied me with a little smile on her lips.

“Did you come her for the blowjob only or did you have something else on your mind?” she asked after I had sat there in silence for far too long.

Damnit. This girl had me as unsteady as a necromancer’s derelict tower. I did my best to focus my thoughts on the task at hand. And to tuck my dick back into my pants.

“Your mother is not your mother.”

Luna froze. I told you I was blunt. Possibly a little too blunt for this occasion. Her eyes burned into my skull and I saw anger growing there. And then it was gone. As a droplet in a waterfall.

“Nonsense. My mother is just fine. I saw her not an hour ago. She was knitting.”

I pressed my lips together. She clearly wouldn’t be easily convinced. But I still had to try.

“Your mother was abducted. Possibly killed. And replaced with someone else. Something else,” I corrected myself.

In truth I was pretty darn certain that Luna’s mother was as dead as a staked vampire. But that was probably a little too blunt, even for my taste. I can be couth from time to time. If it suits my needs.

Luna studied me for a very long and exceedingly uncomfortable time.

“How.”

The single word from her mouth hit the air like a bullet from a silenced rifle. At least she wasn’t stupid. But I knew that. Otherwise there would have been no point in coming here.

“I do not know exactly how she was kidnapped. But what I do know is that the thing posing as your mother is a creation. I saw the mark of the wizard on the hairs of the lock you gave me.”

Luna blinked.

“The lock I gave you was taken from her before she disappeared,” she said tilting her head slightly.

I opened my mouth. Then I closed it again. Damn. I hadn’t thought of that. But I was certain that the mark I had seen was a wizard’s mark. I knew that all of the breasts I had augmented would have my mark on them. It was impossible to get around. For some reason magic, especially permanent magic, wanted to make itself known. It wanted to show off its creator. Why that is the case, I have no idea. But it is a fact of magic. Just like when you summon a daemon and you have to pay an equal price in the bargain. A fact. Not to be bent or circumvented.

So. Luna’s mother was a fabrication. I knew that. But she was right. The hair was from before she disappeared. How else could she have given it to me? Think, Jakob, think.

“Has your mother been gone for a longer period of time before?”

Luna’s eyes flashed up towards the ceiling. I took the opportunity to look at her. She seemed even more stunning than last time I saw her. Her obviously fake purple hair looked as if it was made for her. The sharp features of her face made my mind stumble and almost fall. Her eyes looked back at me and it felt like I was falling into them.

“Two months ago. I was away on business for a week. When I got back, she had rearranged her room. She hasn’t done that before. Not since father died. I thought it was strange, but she is old.”

I nodded slowly. Then I looked at the door. I closed my eyes and wove a barrier in case someone was listening.

“Do you trust me?”

Luna laughed.

“Not in the least.”

Smart girl. I wouldn’t trust me either.

“All right. But do you want me to help you?”

Luna tilted her head and narrowed her eyes.

“So. You’re saying that someone … *something* took my mother’s place. Why?”

I shrugged.

“You tell me. Why would someone want to infiltrate your organization?”

Luna pressed her lips together and went silent for a long moment. Then she nodded.

“What do I have to.”

*

As I was in the neighborhood I stopped for a pint at the Pie and the Piper. It was almost empty this early in the afternoon.

“Long time no see, old timer,” Mickel, the bartender said as I sat down at the bar. “Hell, man. What happened to you?”

“Long story. Actually. Not such a long story, but a painful one. Can I get a beer?”

The bartender nodded and poured me an IPA. Mickel was a big guy. And by that, I mean that he had to hunch over in the old pub where I couldn’t even reach the ceiling. He probably has giant blood in him somewhere. A lot of people from up north have that, especially if they’re from the great forests of Värmland, like Mickel.

“Any news?” I said as I had taken a big gulp of my beer.

Mickel nodded slowly.

“Some rumors about something happening around Önneköp.”

When you asked for news at the Piper you didn’t mean what you could read in the papers. Not the regular papers, at least. Önneköp was in the middle of redneck country. I usually don’t go that far out in the countryside, too many critters for my taste.

“Rumors?”

Mickel nodded.

“Critters?”

Mickel shook his head.

“Magic related.”

I raised an eyebrow. There were no magicians there. Not that I knew of anyway, and I thought I knew every mage in Skåne.

“Anything more than that?”

Mickel shook his head.

“So. Wanna tell me the story?”

I looked at him. I couldn’t tell him about Luna. But boy had I a need to tell him about Sophia. I spent the next thirty minutes recounting the tale of the strange Sophia af Truls to Mickel.

“They really played the song for her all night?”

I nodded. Mickel laughed a hearty laugh that made the bottles behind him rattle. Apparently, that was the part that he thought was the funniest. Even funnier than when I blew a hole in my own office. I like talking to Mickel. I know that he will keep most of what I tell him to himself, but the part about the band harassing Sophia would likely spread like wildfire in the magical underworld. But I didn’t mind that in the least.

“Wizard Gyllenborst.”

I froze. That voice. God. I hated that voice.

“I thought you had banned him,” I hissed at Mickel.

The bartender raised one large, busy eyebrow.

“No. You wanted me to ban him. I said I couldn’t do it. You stormed out smashing up two glasses on your way out, remember?”

Oh. Yes. I did remember that.

“Why can’t you ban him?” I said in a low voice as I heard footsteps coming closer.

“It’s a free country. I can throw him out if he gets too drunk. But as long as he’s over eighteen, and not fall-over drunk, he’s allowed in.”

I sighed. I had been thrown out of the Piper more times than I could count. Most often after falling over. Drunk. I took a deep breath and straightened my back, turning towards the dickhead that was now standing next to me.

“*Mr*. Bohman,” I said, putting on my very best fake smile.

“What a coincidence. Running into you here,” the asswipe answered with an even more fraudulent smile than my own.

Johan Bohman is a fat man. He’s not fat fat. He’s just regular, boring fat. It does give him a few extra chins. But they suit him in an annoying way. He dresses like the rich guy that he is, and thanks to an excellent hairdresser his few remaining strands of hair look surprisingly stylish.

“Indeed. I *very* seldom come here.”

His smile remained intact. I didn’t know if that was because he picked up on the sarcasm or if he did not. I guessed the latter. The man was an imbecile. The problem was that he was a powerful imbecile. Not in any magical way. He probably couldn’t have performed a simple cantrip. No. Johan Bohman’s power came from having the fortune of having the right parents. He was the one that was going to ruin the family in the end, there was no doubt about that, but during his lifetime he could live off of what his ancestors had so graciously gathered for him.

“You did get the invitation, did you not?”

“To what?”

His smile widened even further if that was possible.

“The annual meeting of the *Ordo Astartes* of course. You know you have a standing invitation to join the order, and the annual meeting is an excellent time to do so. There will be wine, women and wizards.”

His smile now seemed to touch his ears. I took a big gulp of my beer. It didn’t taste as good as it had a minute ago.

“Wine, women and wizards you say?”

Bohman nodded. I could of course go there and take their women and wine and then laugh at their pathetic attempts to be wizards. But I knew how it would end. And the Order, the real Order, would have my head if I joined these maladroit dabblers. Literally, most likely.

“Was that the letter with the golden print on it?”

He nodded.

“Nah. Tore it up and threw that in the trash without opening it.”

Bohman looked as if he had swallowed his tongue. His jowls wobbled a little as he tried to get his temper under control. There was an idea … I could make him swallow his tongue. That happened naturally, didn’t it? I had read that somewhere, I was sure of it.

“If you are not with us, you are against us,” the dickwad said with a sneer.

My jaw actually fell at that point. Was this guy serious? Was he threatening me? A wizard of the Order? Even though my standing with the Order had never been very good, they would still burn this pile of shit into a smoking pile of shit if he did something against me.

“Is that so?” I said, raising my beer glass once more.

On the other side of the bar Mickel was polishing a glass to the point of cracking. I looked up at him and he was shaking his head slowly. I sighed.

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Bohman. But I simply don’t have the time. Important wizardry things, you know?” I said, waving my hand over my head.

Bohman looked a bit confused, but then he cleared his throat and nodded.

“Very well then, wizard Gyllenborst. Maybe next year?”

“Maybe next year,” I nodded.

*

“Wanna hear something new?”

I raised an eyebrow at Siri who poked her head out of the opening where the radio should have been.

“You? Playing something new?”

Siri smiled.

“A girl can change, can’t she?”

I laughed. Then I nodded.

“Go on then.”

Moments later a guitar started playing some very familiar chords.

“*Didn’t know what time it was, and the lights were low*,” came Siri’s voice that sounded very similar to the original.

I couldn’t help but smile.

“This isn’t new. This was released even before−“

“Are you going to let me sing it or not?” Siri growled in a voice twenty times deeper than her tiny body allowed.

I put up a hand and shut up. You’ve got to pick your battles with daemons. Siri kept singing. I drove through Malmö and headed north on E6. I needed to make another stop before I headed home.

“*There’s a starman waiting in the sky,*” Siri sang as I took the offramp towards Fjelie.

Apparently, she really liked the song, given that it was the third time the band played it. I didn’t mind. It’s a good song. I pulled up outside the old barn located in the midst of a large sugar beet field. It’s somewhat strange that the best enchanter in all of Scandinavia lives in an old barn in the Skåne countryside. But for people who knew the leyline network it was a perfect location.

“Anyone home?” I yelled as I hammered my fist on the barn door.

I heard the banging of something hard against metal and shouted again. The place smelled of old motor oil and burning metal. There was an old Saab standing by the large barn door and there was something strange about it that I couldn’t put my finger on.

“Rickard? It’s Jakob!”

The banging subsided and a man clad all in black leathers came walking towards me. He pulled his welding helmet off and the dirty face of one of the few men I called a friend appeared. Rickard, like most dwarves, has a huge beard that goes down almost to his belly. He’s tall for a dwarf, standing a bit over five feet. His burnished grey eyes watched me intently and a smile dawned on his face.

“Jakob. What have you been up to?” Rickard said and clasped my hand in his.

I did my best not to grimace as he squeezed my hand tight. Rickard never meant to hurt anyone when he did that.

“Not much,” I squealed.

He let go of my hand and I massaged it a bit, trying not to look too much like a little bitch.

“Coffee?”

I nodded and followed Rickard to the dilapidated little table that leaned on the wall not to fall over. Rickard poured us each a cup of pitch-black coffee that felt like a rasp as it went down my throat. We talked for a little bit about nothing, like friends do before Rickard put his cup down on the table and looked me square in the eyes.

“What do you need, buddy?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Buddy,” Rickard said, crossing his wide arms across his even wider chest. “You only come to my home once a year, and every time it is because you need something. And I can see it in your face, you have the worst poker-face of anyone I know.”

He was right, of course. We only met at the Piper usually. For the equinox and solstice celebrations. Last had been at midsummer. Damn. That had been one party. I was hung-over for six days after that one. It had just been pure luck that I hadn’t died of alcohol poisoning. Whatever you do, don’t ever have a tequila race with a dwarf.

“So what do you want?”

I looked around to make sure that there was no one else around.

“A tracer.”

Richard let out a long whistle.

“You sure about that?”

I wasn’t sure about that. But it was the only way I could think of getting anywhere with this damn mess. I nodded.

“Are you sure, sure? Those things are as illegal as they get.”

“Do you have one or not?”

Rickard laughed so loud that the old Saab seemed to shudder. A hubcap fell off and clattered to the concrete floor.

“What do you take me for? An amateur? Of course I have one. It’s fine to have one as long as you don’t turn it on. But you wouldn’t keep it turned off, would you?”

I did my best to shrug. Apparently my shrugging game was even worse than my poker-face and Rickard laughed even louder.

“Will you sell it to me or not?”

Rickard stopped laughing and looked at me through narrowed eyes. He seemed to look straight through my head for a while before tapping his finger on his blunt nose.

“I want two.”

I raised one eyebrow.

“For six months. My pick.”

“Two?” is said, feeling the blood drain out of my face.

Richard nodded.

“For *six* months?”

The dwarf nodded again. Damn! I shook my head. One at six months was pushing it. Two? I might break my spirit in half if I tried that.

“Could we say fo−“

“No.”

“Fi−“

“I said no. I’ve got what you need. I want two for six.”

The last breath left my lungs and I stumbled backwards until I sat down on the hood of the Saab that yielded an ominous creak from the old machine.

“Do you want it or not?”

I sighed deeply. And nodded.

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This was the third chapter of our book The Sharp Edge of the Veil.

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