Lost Talent - Chapter 2

Mina read the parchment as Heidi shrugged on her coat. The scrawl of ink from a modern biro stood out against the rough parchment. It brought back bad memories. The message was simple. “I think my son is in trouble. Can you check on him?” Signed, Mrs A. Solomon was one of their oldest friends. Along with Beryl the four of them had been inseparable during their time at Oakward Accademy for the Talented, drawn together by their mutual alienation from the other pupils.

During the holidays, Mrs Adowale — or Mrs A as she insisted they call her — had been their guardian angel. She was the only adult in their lives who could perceive magic but wasn’t a teacher or part of the Magisterium. That meant she would have been talented enough to learn magic if she had been taught early enough. When they had graduated, they had each given her a couple of ‘burn scrolls’ in case she needed to get in touch. They were enchanted pieces of parchment that would teleport to the hearth of the creator when burned, a basic method of communication in arcane society.

Mina stuffed the parchment in her pocket and knelt down to tie her shoes. “How would she know Sol’s in trouble?” She asked.

“He must have given her something.” Heid said as she stood by the door, ready to charge into the London night. “Some kind of artifact. Are you ready yet?”

A mystery and one of her friends in danger? Either one of those would have been enough to grab Heidi’s full attention. With both she was practically vibrating with concern and excitement.

Mina stood and grabbed her coat off the peg. For once, Heidi’s impatience was justified. Mina hoped that Bergamot and Mandragora weren’t asleep yet. Their urgency created thunder of their footsteps as they charged down the old Victorian stairs. They sped through the shop at a blur and out into the Night, heedless of the cold Autum drizzle that had descended on the city.

As Heidi led the way to portal nexus, Mina could feel the note from Mrs A burning a hole in her pocket. How frustrating would it be to stuck at home, knowing that your son was in trouble, and you couldn’t even go to his house to find out why? Mrs A could probably enter a demesne if she wanted to, but the Magisterium would wipe her memory if they found her in one. Heidi and Mina were her only hope.

“I wish Sol had agreed to take a mobile from the Magisterium.” Mina had one, enchanted so that she could only use it to call blood relatives.

“You know he doesn’t trust them,” Heidi replied.

It was a special concession that the Magisterium allowed to people from untalented families. It was judged that families looking for missing persons were a greater threat to the veil than the occasional telephone call. Sol had told her she was crazy to carry around brain altering magic from Magisterium, but she didn’t feel like she had much of a choice. Like so much of her life in arcane society.

They arrived at the gazebo that held the local portal. Heidi put her hand forwards, sending a pulse of magic through her ring to tell it to open Hackney Demesne. The network wasn’t busy in the middle of the night, so it opened immediately, and they skipped through as quickly as they could.

Unlike the well-to-do Hampsted Demesne, Hackney was far more working class. It was just two streets of victorian housing with a nexus in the middle. The houses were densely packed, looking like they had been squeezed as close as their builders could manage for maximum population density. They were simple two up, two down terraces, inhabited by arcane labourers and people who were just starting out, Like Sol.

It was impressive that he was managing to keep up with the rent. His alchemy business must have taken off at least a little bit. Neither of them had visited. She had felt too awkward without an invitation, and Heidi had been too distracted by the succession of projects she had been pursuing.

Heidi strode down the road with Mina following behind. Their pace quickened as they became aware of a commotion that seemed to have Sol’s house at the epicentre. There were small crowds on either side, being slowly pushed back by constables, as if in fear of imminent disaster. The constabulary held up their staves like riot shields, emanating light that held the threat of something more. Every now and again they threw nervous glances back to the house. The crowd looked like residents of the demesne, and judging by their dress, many had been roused from sleep in a rushed evacuation.

Mina reached out to stop Heidi from getting closer, but it was far too late. She was already pushing through the crowd toward the nearest constable. Mina had no choice but to follow. Heidi navigated the crowd like a short ginger bullet, leaving Mina to apologise and smooth the ruffled feathers that she left in her wake. Luckily they all had bigger things on their minds, or else they probably wouldn’t have gotten away with it. Heidi had long ago discovered how displaying confidence in the face of a crisis put people on the back foot. Mina wished she shared her friend’s fearlessness.

“Get back miss!” Said the constable as soon as he saw her. He was probably only a couple of years older than them. He made up for it with a lanky frame, which was further exaggerated by his domed helmet. He wore a thick leather shoulder cape over his uniform. It must have been pleasant to be protected from the rain. Most of the crowd he was holding at bay were hardly dressed for the weather.

Heidi looked affronted at the suggestion. “I’m sorry, who is in charge here?”

“Miss?”

“That is my friend’s house!” she pointed. “What on earth is going on?”

He held up his hand in the vain hope that it would help make his point. “We have an unattended cauldron that is in danger boiling over, and we have no idea what it will do if it does. So, until it either goes off or someone gets here who can neutralise it, every-one has to keep a safe distance.”

Heidi took a step forward. “It’s a good thing I’m here then!”

“Miss?” He questioned her again. Despite the authority his position gave him, it seemed that the addition of Heidi to this already tense situation was sapping his resolve.

“That’s my friend’s house. If his cauldron is overboiling, then I’m the only other person who can turn it off.” The people around her in the crowd had stopped murmuring and were paying attention. The constable looked blankly at Heidi. “Because I helped make it,” She said as if every-one should have already known.

A light bulb turned on behind the constable’s eyes. He raised one finger at her. “Wait there!” He turned and jogged back to Sol’s house, quickly disappearing inside.

In the silence, while Heidi stood tapping her foot, Mina turned to the woman standing next to her. “What happened?”

She looked to be in her forties and was holding a thick coat closed with one hand while the other balanced a grumpy child against her hip. The parts of her nightdress that weren’t covered would be slowly absorbing the damp of the night, only adding to her discomfort. “There was a loud thump from twenty-five and then a big burst of magic. Fifteen minutes later a whole gang of constables turned up. Next thing we knew we were all getting turfed out of bed.”

The young constable re-appeared, followed by an older man, thick set and with a well-groomed steel grey beard. He had more stripes on his arm than the constable, Mina guessed that made him a sergeant. He walked with a full staff of gnarled wood at least six foot long. Mina knew where that branch had been taken from. It exuded power, not only from magic, but from the status it gave him. If he expected that to help him with Heidi, he would very swiftly learn the error of his ways.

“Miss, what’s your name?” He said as he came close.

Heidi folded her arms. “Heidi.” She paused for effect. “Prendergast.”

The sergeant’s eyes went briefly wide in recognition. “I knew your grandmother.” He said, his tone indicating that it was not a pleasant association.

“I take after her.”

His hand went to his brow. Heidi’s Grandmother had been either an outspoken busybody or a folk hero depending on who you asked. “Miss Prendergast, that thing in there could blow at any time, and who knows what it could do. We can’t let any-one in there.”

“You came to an alchemists house without an alchemist of your own?” She shook her head and gestured around her, “look at all these people! Are you seriously going to let them stand here getting soggy when me and my friend could solve this for you in a couple of minutes?”

Mina’s mouth dropped open. “Wait, what?” suddenly every-one was looking at her as well.

“She has just spent the whole afternoon divining potions. Send us in and let these people go back to their hearths and dry off.” Heidi raised her voice at that last bit, and there were grumbles of approval from the people nearby.

“If you go in there, that thing could blow up in your faces. I’m not sending two girls in to danger on their own.”

That got to Mina. She was too tired to hold in her anger at the implication. “Then come with us. Sol would NEVER brew something so dangerous this close to this many people!” He was the most conscientious alchemist she had ever known. 

The woman next to them spoke up. “At least let them have a look!”

A man on the other side of them agreed. “It’s better than just standing here, these are our homes!”

There was a general hubbub of agreement. Mina didn’t know if she should be pleased that they believed in them or slightly piqued that the crowd didn’t seem to be concerned with their safety.

“We are Oakward Graduates after all, I think we know how to deal with an overboiling cauldron.” Every-one would recognise Heidi's implied reproach. There was no way you’d never get into the constabulary without graduating the academy.

The sergeant spoke through gritted teeth. “Fine. Constable, you’re with me. And if I see even a puff of smoke,” he pointed at both of them with his staff, “I want you two running like your life depends on it.”

Sol’s door had been kicked in. That could have been the constables, or some-one else. There was no way for Mina to tell. The front room was sparce in the same way that their loft was, a haphazard scattering of furniture that was scavenged and bought on the cheap. There was a ratty second-hand sofa in front of the hearth, and a table covered with open grimoires. They marched through the room before they could see what Sol was researching.

The room beyond was clearly intended to be used as a kitchen, but the cookware shared space with bottles, flasks and other tools of alchemy. The shelves were filled with Jars of herbs, powders and exotic reagents — Eyes, tails, feathers and less easily identifiable contents.

On the side, next to the old ceramic sink, was Sol’s cauldron. It was unique, a special project that Heidi and Sol had collaborated on, a culmination of everything they had learned at school. It was two vessels nested together. The outer cauldron magically generated heat that was defused by a special alchemical medium inside. The inner cauldron held the potion, bubbling dangerously close to the rim. It was intended to make accidents like this less likely to happen. Whatever Sol was making had gone dangerously out of control. The whole apparatus periodically gave little jumps which clacked against the surface of the kitchen like a ticking time bomb. The power in the potion was looking for release.

Heidi was the only one who didn’t seem perturbed. “Mina, you first. Let’s see what this lot are so afraid of.”

Heidi was putting on a good show. Mina couldn’t let her — or Sol — down. “Right.” She stepped forward, her foot hitting something that clattered across the floor. It was Sol’s stave. He favoured his cauldron as his primary focus, but he still needed something for evocations. It was the twin of hers. They had gone and bought them together in their fourth year. She cast a glance back at Heidi, who raised an eyebrow before nodding at the cauldron.

Mina brought her own stave out from inside her coat and prepared the evocation that she had been using all day. This time, it was a little easier. She didn’t have to navigate the thread of magic around the enchantments of the cauldron, she could dip it through the potion from above and the raise it to her mind in a gentle curve. She didn’t want to add any excess power to leak into the potion, so she kept the thread as thin as she could.

When it met her mind, it was such a strong sensation that she needed to take a step back. She couldn’t help but feel a little amused at the cool, slimy sensation that briefly overwhelmed her senses before she cut it off.

“Frogs,” She said.

“Frogs?” The sergeant said.

Heidi gave a full-throated laugh. As if on que, there was a series of little pops from the cauldron, followed by a series of croaks. Heidi grabbed an empty flask and fished out one of the little confused amphibians before any-one could stop her. It was excessively slimy, and a vivid purple, the same colour brew that now formed it’s tiny, animated body.

She dangled it in front of the sergeant. “Is this what you were so afraid of? The worst you’re going to get from overboiling a zoomorphic potion is a bit of golemisation.” She said. “Should I let the people outside know that the constabulary was incapable of protecting them from an army of tiny frogs?” she put a stopper in the flask, sealing the creature inside a tiny glass prison.

The cauldron started to calm down. Heidi must have been channelling a command into it while she was speaking. That should arrest the brewing process and let the magic bleed off. The sergeant was torn between embarrassment and relief. “Don’t think I’m not grateful for your help, but if you breathe a word of this, you’ll be in trouble. This is an active constabulary investigation.” He turned towards the door. “You both need to leave now.”

As he did, Mina saw Heidi quickly secrete the flask in her coat pocket, which was far larger than one might expect. Heidi acquiesced and let the constable lead them back out to the street.

*                                  *                                  *                                  *

They hopped though the portal once again, then walked for an hour through untalented London to get to Mrs A’s house. Heidi gripped Mina’s arm the whole way. She had faced down a constable in front of a mob without batting an eye, but it had taken everything out of her. The unfamiliar nighttime traffic was overwhelming.

When they arrived, Mrs A made them tea to calm all their nerves while Mina told her what they had found at Sol’s.

The living room was just as Mina remembered it. They had spent days there lounging around in the school holidays, catching up on all the pop culture they had missed and watching Heidi’s incredulous responses to movies and music videos.

Heidi stood in front of the mantlepiece, closely examining the candle in its centre. The flame was a vivid red, and it flickered in a strangely rhythmic fashion. It was made of Apis wax, and glyphs had been carved into it, spiralling down its length. The wax was untouched, the flame maintained by single thread of Solomon’s magic. 

Silence blanketed the room after Mina finished the story.

“You have no idea where my boy might have gone?” Mrs A almost mumbled the question into her tea.

“No.” Heidi said.

Mina realised she needed to take the lead again, before Heidi’s bluntness upset Mrs A further. “It looked like the door was broken in, but there were no other signs of a struggle.”

Mrs A looked at her expectantly. She took a moment to think. Going over the story had made Mina consider everything she had seen. “The constabulary wouldn’t tell us why they were there. Sol’s cauldron was on the boil. It would have only taken him a thought to turn it off. Even if he was in the middle of being arrested, I can’t believe that he would have neglected that. It was far too important to him and it could have been ruined. The neighbours didn’t see him being carried off by anyone either.”

“Is he on the run?” Mrs A asked. She was concentrating on every word that Mina said.

Mina’s mind went to the stave, lying abandoned on his kitchen floor. “I don’t think so. He wouldn’t leave both of his foci behind. Most of us feel naked without one. I couldn’t see his apron or goggles anywhere either.”

Mrs A’s body stiffened. “So, he is either desperate…”

“Or some-one took him.” Mina finished. “We haven’t seen him recently,’ a deeply personal guilt washed over her. “Do you know anything about what he was working on?”

 “Working hard is all he could tell me. Trying to set up his alchemy business.” A note of pride crept into Mrs A’s voice. “He said it was difficult to set up as an independent. There was a lot of competition from the ‘Potion cartel.’ He couldn’t match their prices.” The cartel was a powerful group of companies like O’Dalaigh & Sons that banded together to control the potion market. Trying to compete with them was a daunting prospect. “I wish he had a better way to keep in touch.”

Heidi had joined them, reaching over and adding an inordinate amount of sugar to her tea. Normally Mina would have stopped her after five, but as midnight was edging closer, it might be wholly appropriate. “When was the last time you talked to him?” Heidi asked.

Mrs A thought for a moment. “He put a note through my door the other day. Said he wouldn’t be able to make it over for tea this week as usual. He said a friend had given him something valuable and he needed to work on it.”

It must have been Beryl. Everyone in arcane society was talking about their recent, controversial success. It would make sense for Solomon to have been involved.

Heid couldn’t contain herself any longer. “The candle. Does it always flicker like that?”

Mrs A shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. What does it mean?”

Heidi ignored her. “Did it start flickering before it changed colour or afterwards?”

Solomon’s mum frowned, trying to remember. “Afterwards, about ten minutes after or so. Why? Is that a bad sign?”

“It’s good. If he was dead, it would have gone out.” Heidi blew on her tea to cool it, oblivious to the tension that hung on her every word. “The red means he’s in danger, but the flickering? That’s him. He’s signalling us. He’s conscious and able to meditate deeply enough to affect it.”

Mrs A sat forward, excited. “Can you use the link to talk to him?” she had clearly been paying attention over the years.

“It’s too fragile, and it’s only linked to him. No-one else would be able to affect it.” Heidi said.

“You need to tell that constabulary. Maybe it will help them find him.” Mrs A Said.

Mina considered the level of competence that the Constabulary had displayed tonight, and their mysterious presence at Sol’s house. There had been at least six of them there, plus a sergeant. If they had been concerned for Sol’s welfare, they wouldn’t have turned up in such force. Something else was going on.

Mrs A looked between them. “Promise me, girls, that you won’t put yourselves in danger.” her composure was starting to crack.

It was too late for that. Their bond with Solomon ran too deep, neither of them would stop until he was safe. “I promise,” Mina lied. She set down her half-drunk tea and stood. “It was lovely to see you again, Mrs A. We'll keep in touch.”

Heidi looked slightly puzzled but stood and drank down her own tea in a quick series of gulps, despite the temperature. Mrs A politely saw them out.

Heidi pulled her duffel coat on outside before gently reproving Mina for her breech of etiquette. “You didn’t finish your tea.”

Mina’s voice was quiet. “She needed us out of the way so that she could cry.”

“Oh.” Heidi paused while she processed that information. “No time to rest though.”

“No. Now we’ve got to find Beryl.”