Ray finished his meal. He cleaned everything with blue flame and went back to his

table. He sat down, and leaned back against the wall to think.

He asked himself, “What did he know? What were his options at this point?”

He had the motive. His enemy wanted to capture whatever energy she could from the

Abyss, and planned to summon something she could use to harness that energy. Using

it as a weapon might be a side effect of what she wanted to do.

He knew he had a set number of seconds before the star alignment was done for the

next fifty years. That was how long he had to capture her, or defend against whatever

summons she might be concocting to carry out her plan.

While he would like to capture her, all he really needed to do to clear his debt was

hold her off until the stars were out of alignment. That gave Woad another fifty years

to find another sucker to finish the job.

She could block his flame from finding her with a casual sweep of the city. The block

would show up, but there were already fifty plus blocks in the city. He would have

to go door to door, or enlist help to search every block he couldn’t clear on his own.

Lord Brian’s people taking her on became a real consideration in a house to house

search.

And if she could change her appearance with her magic, that would make the search

that much harder for any Watchmen, or adventurers, doing what they had to do.

He looked at the table. His arm had constructed a visual aid out of the sawdust on the

floor. Blue flame had constructed models and pressed the material together in front

of him. He smiled at that.

He put the diorama and figurines out of the way for a moment as his thoughts turned

to his fellow champions.

He represented Woad. Johnny Mac stood for the Duke. And Lightner’s backer was

unknown. He felt his guess about Lightner was right. The boy’s other side was pure

physical might. He didn’t have anything to investigate something like this without

local help on the ground. Johnny Mac had Buble, but the rabbit had tried to get out

of the duty for whatever reason. The butler might have led his champion into a killing

field just to get rid of him, and had tried at least once before they met Ishvar.

Maybe Buble had felt like he hadn’t needed a human investigator to help out.

Ishvar, Lord Brian and his group, Sandra and Sam, were all locals roped into this

mess. They had the most to lose if he couldn’t find the librarian. Then Transition, and

then however many other places from there would suffer. He couldn’t count on his

Earth being last in the line from such a threat.

The librarian might be able to attack every dimension from Transition.

He had to restart everything from the beginning. That meant he had to look at the

library, and the private quarters Ishvar blew up. Maybe there was something there he

could use.

He also needed to do a scan to make sure the blocks had gone down from their

actions. If he could check that, then the librarian was hiding behind an existing shield

that he had picked up but had put aside because of the urgency.

He looked at the diorama the lamp had built for him as he thought about his situation.

He picked up the piece that looked like him. The figurine held up its metal hand in

a fist.

He felt the librarian was going to try for a smaller summons as a backup plan. That’s

what he would do. The spot could be anywhere in the city.

Having made that decision, he needed to figure out where she would cast the

summoning.

“Lamp, I need a model of the city,” thought Ray.

Affirmative. A small, but precise, cluster of buildings took shape at the hands of the

blue flame. Small sections marking the outer wall formed a perimeter as the simulacra

came to life.

“We know that the Face of Ba’al was going to appear over the university,” thought

Ray. “Can you show me the direct line of travel for it, if there is one.”

Blue colored three, or four, of the buildings. One of those was the University of

Grandview. He thought at least one was a townhouse. He couldn’t figure out what the

other two buildings were by eye.

“So the constellation isn’t a constant presence,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

“Where did we fight her when we caught up with her?,” asked Ray.

The townhouse that had been colored blue turned into a column of proxy smoke and

fire.

“She could still go back, but she would have to rebuild her summons if it was in the

walls,” thought Ray. “Good job blowing that place up.”

Affirmative. The metallic voice sounded pleased about how that had worked out. Ray

couldn’t blame it.

“We need to check these other two spots to make sure she’s not there,” thought Ray.

He indicated the last of the glowing buildings with his metal hand. “I have a feeling

they are on your blocked list.”

The lamp reached out through the walls of the Oak. That momentary touch was all it

needed.

Affirmative.

Ray studied the two buildings. He doubted he would be able to break in without being

detected. The lamp couldn’t shield him from real magic in his opinion.

It could give him a fighting chance, and that’s all he wanted.

“Let’s try the closest one first,” thought Ray. “If she’s not there, we’ll try the other.

If she’s not at either one, we’ll think of some other scheme that we can try to put into

motion in the time we have left.”

Affirmative.

“Also I think I am going to need some light armor for protection,” thought Ray. “Any

thoughts?”

Affirmative. Blue flame transformed Ray’s clothes from home into a suit of light

armor resembling Lord Brian’s, except in blue. A lighter blue triangle formed a

stylized beam of light on the hardened chest plate.

“Also I think we’re going to have to work on direct thought commands instead of the

way we have been doing it,” thought Ray. “I think it is slowing us down. Any

thoughts on that?”

Negative.

“I’ll give it some thought,” thought Ray. “It may just be something simple like

speeding up our mental processes so we can throw flame like magic but faster.”

Understood.

“Leave the diorama,” thought Ray. “We want anyone finding this to know we’re

okay.”

Affirmative.

Ray pulled two pieces of paper out of his wallet. He put them on his table. He fished

out his pen and ink. He wrote a note for Lord Brian to be given the things the flame

had sculpted. He paused to wonder how many of the staff could actually read and

write.

“Put a voiceover on this for anyone who reads it,” thought Ray. “Include my whistle

too.”

Affirmative. A touch of blue flame covered the note for an instant. Anyone picking

up the note would hear Ray telling them to give the model to Lord Brian, and his

conclusions about things.

At least someone would know that he had kept looking for the world killer instead of

just walking away like someone with a lick of common sense would have done.

He got one more mug of tea and drank it down slowly, nodding at the feeling it was

giving him. He felt like he could fight the unfightable, see the unseeable, and walk

the unwalkable. He put down two gold coins to cover his bill. Then he left through

the front door. He made sure to lock up behind him.

“Ready for some Spider-man action?,” asked Ray.

Unknown. Memory search necessary.

“While you’re doing that, throw me a line so I can climb to the roof of the nearest

building, and mark out the target for me,” thought Ray.

Affirmative. A line of blue flame with a claw on the end grabbed the closest wall to

the Blue Oak. The line retracted and carried him into a slow swing into the building.

He ran up the wall as the line retracted. When he reached the edge of the roof, he

looked out over the city. The marker for his building shone in his vision.

“You might want to look up memories for Assassin’s Creed and Parkour,” thought

Ray. “That’s what we’re going to be using to try to sneak up on Lethal Librarian

Lady.”

Affirmative.

Ray crossed the roofs, using the line when he couldn’t jump the gap without too much

trouble. He paused when he reached the clear space around the target. He doubted

that ring was clear by accident.

Now he had to think of a way to breach with minimal effort and maximum damage.