Larry Correia: Spellbound

“What is it?” Faye asked. The other Grimnoir were reacting with disbelief. The ones like her that didn’t speak the language were all asking questions, and that was most of them.

Mr. Browning had gone as white as the movie screen. “An Active tried to murder President Roosevelt… It is unknown if he survived. Hundreds are dead.” He turned to face her. “This is horrible.”

Francis and Heinrich were supposed to have met with the president today. She had spoken to Francis by mirror just that morning. She really liked Francis, and the idea of him being in danger made her sick, but he was smart and brave, so surely he’d be okay. Well, maybe not, because if anybody could get himself into trouble, it was Francis. At least Heinrich would have protected him and kept him from doing anything stupid. Heinrich was the reliable one. Francis was the cute one.

“The Peace Ray and now this?” someone exclaimed. “The government will clamp down on Actives for sure!”

Faye was sickened by the idea. There had been talk… But that couldn’t happen here. Could it?

“This is dire news,” Mr. Browning told her.

“What’s going to happen?”

Mr. Browning looked very tired. “War, Faye. I believe someone just declared war.”

The elders of the Grimnoir Society had not gone very far, and they reconvened a few minutes later in a room several floors below. The two that had been in the prior meeting were joined through a communication spell to the five other elders around the world. All had been listening in secret to the interview with Faye and the meeting afterward. The matter at hand was so important that it needed the full wisdom of all the Society’s leadership.

The seven skipped the pleasantries. They had much to discuss.

The prepared mirror gave the illusion of spinning to face the distant speaker. “Do we believe she’s the one?”

“As mad as it seems, we have no reason to doubt her truthfulness,” the Englishman said as he turned to his companion. “Klaus?”

“She’s very difficult to Read. Her thoughts are different. She is not unintelligent, quite the opposite in fact. She’s just uncomplicated… and quick. All I can say is that she certainly believes her own story.”

“Could it be? Could the Chairman really be dead?” a woman asked.

“Pershing’s knights are no fools, and their stories are consistent. The girl is extraordinarily gifted. Her connection to the Power is unrivaled,” Klaus pointed out.

A French elder interjected, “It seems that she is not nearly as strong now, though. Transporting the Tempest nearly killed her. Yet that fits the pattern, and the events leading up to that certainly fit with what we are looking for. Harriet?”

“She is about the right age.”

“The battle that killed the Warlock was fifteen years ago,” Klaus said.

“I know. I was there.”

“As was I, Jacques…” Klaus told the French elder. “Only on the Kaiser’s side. Second Somme was a nightmare. I still wake up with chills.”

“That poor Okie girl doesn’t know her own birthday, but she’s certainly older than fifteen,” the American elder spoke for the first time.

“Yes, but if the Power connected to her when she was young, rather than at birth… Then, yes, it is possible. This has happened before.”

Harriet broached the question that no one wished to ask. “Well, what do we do about it then?”

It was an awkward silence. The elders were used to making difficult decisions necessary to defend their people, but no one wanted to harm a child.

“For now… We keep a close eye on her. If she becomes corrupted by the spell as Warlock did, we must be prepared to strike her down.”

“Jacques!”

“Don’t look at me like that. If that happens, it is either her, or all of us.”

“No!”

“You would have us risk the safety of the entire world for one person?”

The discussian descended into a general argument, spinning about wildly, as it often did when the elders disagreed.

“We will do nothing until we are certain.”

“We can’t-”

“We’ll make sure first,” a calm voice interjected. “I have just the knight for the job.”

“Very well.” The American sighed. “Watch her carefully. Test her. Have your knight try to discover the truth… And if she is the Spellbound…”

“If she’s the Spellbound, then we must decide on a course of action,” Klaus insisted.

“I will arrange everything.”

“Browning and his men cannot know. They would never stand for it. Their fondness for the girl could blind them to her true nature.”

“You would have us sit on our arses and wait to see if the most dangerous piece of magic in history has chosen to bind itself to an unstable child?” the Englishman exclaimed.

Several of the elders replied at once, “Yes.”

“And if she is the one?”

“We will do what we must to survive,” Jacques stated.

That matter was settled.

“And what of the matter of this coming Enemy?” Klaus asked. “Faye and the new man, Sullivan, are both convinced it is real.”

“The Chairman’s mythical beast?” the American openly scoffed. “Coming to devour the Power and all of us along with it? A fairy tale, nothing more.”

“I hope you are right.” The Englishman shook his head. “If the legends of Dark Ocean are true… May God have mercy on us all.”

Crazy Guy

New York City, New York

The librarian was frustrated. He had finally gotten through every single document, report, study, and book about magic in the entire rare books collection of the main branch, and though he’d found some interesting trains of thought to pursue, he was no closer to what he was searching for than when he’d arrived in New York. It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise. A sizable Stuyvesant grant had gotten him the title of visiting research librarian under an assumed name and free access to the entire Library of Congress. After months in D.C. devouring every work on magic in the largest library in the world, he hadn’t found anything about the Enemy. Weeks spent at the extensive Carr Library, devoted exclusively to magic, at the University of Chicago had been just as fruitless.

His newfound title and more of Francis’ dough had gotten him a peek at all of the good stuff at the second largest library in the country. He knew full well that if New York didn’t pan out, the only other place that might have what he was looking for was in Europe, and he didn’t think he had time to learn French. The library he really wanted to hit was in Tokyo, but he didn’t think the Japanese would be particularly fond of him coming for a visit, since he’d recently sliced their First Iron Guard in half.

It had been stupid to get his hopes up here.

The idea was troublesome, but Jake Sullivan was beginning to think that maybe he was the expert. And that was just downright scary.