Magum Imperatoria, Part Fourteen

“Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about them,” Roderick said, practicing some stretches in tandem with the people showing on an old VHS exercise video. They looked like the tape had been originally made in the 80s, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he hoped to accomplish when there didn’t seem to be any sort of body inside the armor. Around him, the room had become vibrant, free of dust and clutter with beautiful colors on the walls much more visible than they’d been in my last visit. Michael was lounging on a sofa eating an orange, his notepad laying on a table with the red spiral showing.

“Come now, Roderick,” Michael nudged, “isn’t knowing things your entire job?”

“I know what the estate knows. And the estate has never known this Brood of Nachash.”

“Well maybe we’ll have better luck with the boyfriend,” he grumbled, before looking to me. “Anything much there?”

“We’ve been working on it,” I said. I was in an armchair, switching my attention between them and a set of notes. “Unfortunately, we may not yet even have enough information to know what to look for. All we really know, he said, is that they’re accessing power. He joked that for all we know, they’re using it to repair a van.” Michael laughed at that and looked back to Roderick.

“You know what the estate knows, right? Does the estate think he’s getting anywhere?”

“He is unknowable to the estate,” Roderick answered, turning the tape off and turning to us. “Anchors cannot be read or properly remembered.”

“So there’s a gap where he should be?”

“More like static. Armed with knives.”

“Fascinating.”

“Perhaps this is the wrong approach.” Roderick sat down and faced me. “Can he track the energy?”

“Oh,” I said, setting the notes down and thinking for a moment. “I don’t actually know. I never thought to ask him that.”

“Magical energy flows through almost everything. As a liminal being, he should have some ability to track that, even if he has never exercised the ability. I expect you will find answers faster by seeing where the energy is going than by sitting in the library joking about vans.”

“You know, he has been working on tracking ghosts.”

“It should be similar to that. Pity I can’t explain how to apply it.”

“Maybe I could. Jackie was teaching me about that.”

“Was she?” Roderick asked, leaning back in his seat. “And how did you fare at that?”

“I had limited results. Something was blocking me, we think.” I gathered my notes and stood. “But maybe it’ll be enough to guide him just the little he needs, right?”

“Should be.”

“Do the two of you have plans tonight?” Michael asked, nodding toward the clock. It was getting well into the afternoon.

“Oh, not yet,” I answered. “Though I suppose we’re running out of time.”

“I’ll call Chez Davineau, make sure there’s a table for you this evening.”

​“Thank you,” I said, patting his shoulder. “I’ll go see what we can do. Thank you both!” As soon as I got out of the room, I glanced down at my notes, and added one about finding out what it meant that Roderick knows what the estate knows, before making my way back to the library. I decided to let him think we just happened to stumble on the restaurant later, since he’s probably had too much rich folk things for one day to handle the concept of reservations very well.

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