Cain Abroad, Part Two

2 May 2007

Jeremiah stepped out of the metaphysical realm into a clearing in the Allegheny National Forest. The energy in the site was deadly calm, but focused on a low stone altar in the center of the clearing. He made a wide arc through the clearing, looking at footprints and the remains of magical signatures. Those remnants were the most interesting aspect of all to him; usually when someone used magic in a site, even a weak spellcaster, the mark of their magic remained loud and clear on the site for weeks at minimum.

“It wasn’t time that degraded these signatures, was it?” he asked, mostly to himself.

“No,” a feminine voice answered. He spun around and looked into the trees for some sign of who was talking to him. “Did you come here because you thought it was?” There. Two ravens sitting on a branch, one with a faint blue glow beneath its feathers, both unmistakably spirits.

“What business is this of yours?” he demanded. The blue, apparently female, raven laughed. The other, in a masculine voice, answered.

“All things are our business, Jeremiah. What business is it of yours?” he asked.

“It’s a family affair.” Jeremiah turned back and began walking toward the altar.

“Oh yes. Always a family affair with you people,” the blue raven said. Both ravens took flight, making a spiral around the clearing and landing on the altar. Jeremiah stopped and put his hands in his pockets.

“How do you know me?”

“We know everyone. That’s part of the deal.”

“What deal?”

“The deal that allows things like you to exist,” she answered. Jeremiah quickly pulled his hand from his pocket and clenched his fist in their direction. Nothing happened. “Oh, you didn’t think we were made of wet matter like normal birds, did you?”

“It was worth a shot.”

“I very much doubt that.”

“What happened here?”

“I don’t think that concerns you yet.”

“Will you tell me when it does concern me?”

“We won’t have to,” the other raven replied. “Besides, you’re not really here to learn about all that. You’re here because you’re trying to find your grandson.”

“Is he near?”

“Not near enough to be a danger to you.”

“He is no danger to me.”

“If you insist.” The bird began preening as Jeremiah stepped forward, running his hand along the edge of the altar.

“He did this?”

“Not all of it,” the blue raven answered. “But he did destroy the magic at play here.”

“Is that not all of it?”

“That’s never all of it.”

“It must have strained him to do this much damage to this much magic.”

“Must it?”

“Why do you only talk in circles?”

“We don’t. Sometimes we give people direct information. Sometimes we say nothing.”

“And why do I not deserve direct information?”

“It isn’t a matter of deserving. It’s a matter of the way things must be.”

“And how must they be?”

“You,” the other raven said, looking back to Jeremiah, “must take a lesson from this and prepare yourself accordingly.”

“And what lesson is that?”

“Your magic will not save you from him.” The ravens took flight again, this time circling Jeremiah once and then going straight up and vanishing from the world. Jeremiah watched them, then touched the stone again.

“Then I suppose I shall have to find something that will.” He placed his hands back into his pockets, turned away from the altar, and walked to the edge of the clearing where he disappeared.

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