Chương 190: 180. Specialist's opinion

"Did you have to come dressed like that?" Rey asked as he led me to his associates.

"You wear a uniform. I do too."

"Mhm." He just groaned before we arrived in front of a few faces I only saw in Q'Shar's files.

"Samuel," I introduced myself to the three people.

"Filip. And these are Lan and Josh."

"Pleasure," I said and shook Lan's hand, hiding my amusement at seeing the woman who had stumbled into our ritual. When Josh extended his hand, I just looked at it. I could see he was gazing at me with a light frown. A frown I mirrored.

"Are you a mage?" I asked, trying to look confused.

"No," he said, then glanced at Filip, who also became slightly uncomfortable.

"So I've heard you're a..." Filip began, looking me up and down, slowly moving his eyes over the robe.

"Mage," he finally finished, unable to pick a better-sounding word.

"Yes," I smiled.

"I most certainly am. Not sure how much Rey told you."

"Quite a bit of unusual stuff. Seeing some strange phenomena is one thing. Fighting mutants and shooting fire out of your hands is another, so forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical," Filip said.

"I get that a lot. So what do you want me to help with? Rey has been rather scarce in his explanations," I said, changing the subject.

"Yes. Well, we have an unusual case in which..." I could see Filip trying to look for rational words, and he would find fewer and fewer of those, so I decided to cut in while he paused.

"Look, I assure you, I've seen stranger things. Just describe what happened."

"Right." Filip nodded to himself.

"The body just got up," he said, and looked me in the eyes. We stared at one another in silence.

"Okay?" I asked.

"Well, is that something common?" Lan asked, clearly curious.

"Depending on what it did after it moved. If it got up and walked, then more or less, yes. If it got up and started performing magic, then no. So, more detail?"

"It got up, walked, and went down only after a whole magazine was emptied into it."

"Okay, so something most death mages should be able to do. Or any beginner necromancer. Can I see the body?" Now, everyone looked to Filip.

"We should still have the clearance. Although..."

"If it's as much of a shitshow as Jim believes, the agencies can argue for hours," Rey said.

"Yeah, but they should be here by now, at least to secure the scene." Filip looked around.

"Fine," he finally relented. I was led to the highest floor of the building, making sure I didn't walk anywhere without directions, as that would be a dumb way to give away my knowledge of the building. I was finally led into the office, where the group stopped, with Lan and Josh staying back.

"I need you to prepare yourself, Mr. Samuel. I'm sure you've seen many mysterious things, but this here... this is just a shocking and awful sight. Don't say I didn't warn you," Filip said, his voice serious. I nodded at the older man and entered the corridor, making sure I would be standing with my back to the rest when I saw the scene. I wasn't that confident in my fake shocked expression around the FBI profiler.

"Well, I wasn't expecting... this," I said, looking over my own work.

"Yes. I've never seen anything like this either. I might not know magic, but I did spend some time on the force," Filip spoke.

"Yeah. Someone really disturbed must have done that," I said.

"But I have to give it to them. The magical work here is impressive." I had to give it to myself. It had been hastily done, so I thought it would look worse, but from here, the runework looked good, really good. Even the runes around the first body kept their pattern.

"Can you tell us what it's used for, or better yet, what did it?" Rey asked. I clicked my tongue and shook my head in resignation.

"Sadly, no. Some magic is unique to families or individuals. Other magic is the common kind. This one is... strange."

"Strange how?" Filip asked.

"That body got up and moved, right?" I asked and then continued speaking to myself.

"But only when someone did something…" I frowned, "arcane, or rather, performed a mental technique on it. The magic here reacts to consciousness." I could see from the corner of my eye Filip give a quick look at Rey, and the other man shake his head lightly.

"I imagine it died from the gunshot." I continued my examination.

"Well, died isn't the right word. The magic moving the corpse used the existing brain for motor functions. Good call to aim for the head. Zombie movies really do the job, eh?" I said, turning to them. Sadly, my humor was underappreciated as the team stayed professional.

"Okay. I see you know your stuff." Filip nodded.

"But what does all of this mean?"

"I have no idea," I said, shrugging.

"It's weird in a way that there are a lot of magic components, but not many spells."

"So what, did someone interrupt the killer?" Rey asked, a bit of hope in his voice. I shook my head.

"No. The spell is complete, while the rest of those markings don't look like a spell at all. It's just a lot of symbolism."

"Symbolism?"

"Magic uses symbolism. To tell it what to do. My staff is a symbol." I waved the piece of wood in front of them.

"Much like the runes you see."

"What does that say?" Filip asked. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I shrugged.

"A lot of things, but nothing human, if you're looking for words. It's like a message for magic. Or..." I paused, looking toward Josh, who was still in the corridor.

"You're uncomfortable around me, aren't you?" I asked out of the blue.

"What?"

"You don't like being in my presence."

"Well, I don't—" Josh began, but I cut him off.

"It wasn't an accusation," I said, raising my hand.

"But if you can do that, then you're either a very rude mind mage, or you're an oracle or an empath." The rest looked at one another, surprised. I couldn't blame the young man. My aura wasn't the most pleasant experience, and in front of him, just keeping it on the down low wasn't enough. Too easy to slip. Instead, I had to mix some other aspects into it. Using a soul crystal containing a soul as well as my own control, I managed to mix up how I would appear to his senses.

Anyone proficient would immediately tell that some of my aura was artificial, but thankfully he wasn't trained.

"I'm not sure what I am," he said.

"But I can sometimes read places and people. Learn what they want, what they feel." I nodded.

"I'd guess you're an empath."

"So, like a mage of sorts? Or am I a mutant, or...?" Josh tried to get a grasp on what he supposedly was. I chuckled.

"You should have a different mind. So maybe a mutant?"

"Different how?" Josh asked, tilting forward. I shrugged.

"No idea. Never got that interested in the topic."

"Oh." He deflated.

"So what did you figure out?" Filip asked during the break in our conversation.

"What?"

"What did you figure out? You paused and then turned to Josh, so you got an idea, right?"

"Well." I looked back at the crime scene.

"Symbolism can also be read by empaths and oracles. They look at it differently, see more, or rather feel what the rest of us must learn. This looks like a riddle or a cipher directed at someone who either knows the symbolism or someone who can sense it." Filip was clearly taken aback by my words, and most of all by their implications.

"Wait, wait, wait. So the killer knows about Josh?"

"Most likely. Did you go into a trance around the crime scenes?" I asked. Josh nodded, going pale in the face.

"We'll get you a protection detail," Rey said, patting the young man on the shoulder.

"Are you sure about it?" Filip asked me.

"Nope. I just got here. I'm just telling you what I see."

"Fuck," Filip shouted.

"So he's playing with us."

"That's why the escalation," Lan said absentmindedly.

"He's leaving us messages now."

"That might not be that bad," Rey said as everyone turned to him.

"That usually means he or she wants to be caught, right?"

"Usually. This isn't exactly by the book, but..." Filip sighed.

"I still don't know if we should continue…" He paused but then exhaled and turned to me.

"Can Josh somehow unravel the message?"

"Not sure. He can try." The young man in the wheelchair shook his head in resignation.

"I already did. Got shocked out of the trance. Like I got electrocuted." I nodded slowly.

"What you describe sounds like an attack on your consciousness. You put too much of yourself outside your mind, and then you injure it, like putting your hand on a stove. You should test the temperature first."

"Can you help him?" Rey asked, receiving an uncomfortable stare from Filip. I hesitated for some time before relenting.

"I can try leading you like I would a mage, but not sure if you work the same way," I proposed, looking at the man in the wheelchair. After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally gave me a nod of confirmation.

"We need to get you out of here to start. You have to approach this slowly, from afar," I instructed. We moved Josh into the corridor away from the crime scene.

"Good," I said.

"Now enter your trance. And a fair warning. Reading others like you do, in the society of mages, is extremely rude and dangerous. If I sense your mind's touch, I will swat it away, and it's not going to be a pleasant experience."

"He's still learning," Filip protested.

"I'm not risking my own mind for his learning," I retorted.

"Let me be clear. I'm doing this as a favor for Rey, for our past together." I could see Rey wince lightly.

"That's it," I said.

"I'll try," Josh said.

"Good. Now enter your trance. But try to keep your senses to a minimum. You're an empath, so you'll still sense my aura, but don't look at it. Try to control the direction in which you extend yourself. It should come naturally once you allow your senses to do it for you, like you don't think about moving your arm, you just do it," I instructed. Josh closed his eyes, and I could see him relax slightly. I could also feel him spread around. It was a fascinating sensation.

While my mental power, or anyone else's, was like a thread, a limb to control, his moved like a mist, encompassing the world around him.

"Pick a spot and concentrate. Try to tell me what kind of people touched the sculpture—or whatever the fuck it is—to your left." Before the mist reached me, it stopped and then slowly moved to encompass the object.

"Umm... greed, a lot of it. It feels slimy. And..." I could see him begin to breathe heavily.

"And some sexual tension and—""Retract part of your senses into yourself. Use the same sensation as lifting a finger off something. That feeling of pressure disappearing while you still barely touch the thing." He relaxed slightly.

"Good. Now move toward the corridor, but above the ground. Ignore the floor and everything, just focus on moving until you feel the aura of that… installation." We waited for some time, but he opened his eyes again.

"I can't," he said.

"I can't move away from my body."

"Okay." I nodded and made a mental note about the empath's reach.

"Let's move you closer." Rey wheeled the kid into the corridor as he once again tried sensing the place.

"I can sense something," he said, and Rey stopped.

"I... there's... there's like a shape. I can see it, but differently. Without the edges. It's strange." I could see Rey try to wheel him closer, but I stopped him.

"Okay, good. You should be sensing the overall surface symbols."

"And then there's the man, the veiled—""Ignore him. Focus on one thing at a time." He stayed tense for a few seconds, his fingertips going white from squeezing the armrest of the wheelchair, before exhaling.

"Good. Now just tell us what you're seeing."

"It's a... a... an angel. A guardian angel. It's..." he frowned lightly and then went quiet.

"A heartless angel is a guardian for a brainless man, blinded by lust. That's what the sculpture means. He's... he's..." He began sweating.

"He's a terrible monster. Oh god. Oh…"

'Rude,' I commented in my mind before speaking out loud.

"Don't focus on the man. Your mind will follow your thoughts." But too late. With a quick shudder, Josh exited meditation, gasping for air.

"Heartless guardian angel for a brainless man blinded by lust. We could have gotten that much," Filip groaned.

"But now you're sure," I said, then turned to Josh.

"You did well. But don't focus on distractions. You need to learn how to navigate them." He nodded with a tired look.

"If you guide him and we remove this installation from here, can't he read the past? We might see the victim. The symbols shouldn't be here then, right?" Filip asked me.

"I doubt that," I said.

"Even if you remove the bodies, the aura lingers. And once the aura of symbols that strong is gone, so will anyone else's who was here."

"Fuck." I stayed with Josh, asking a few less invasive questions and trying to avoid answering Lan's avalanche of curiosity, while Rey and Filip went to the side.

"I have a really important question." Lan finally got to what she was trying to ask.

"If magic is real, could Satanic rituals be real too? Like summoning demons, people in robes, masks, and so on? Are those things real?" she asked.

"Summoning is a real branch of magic…" I said, looking at her like she had grown a third head.

"But masks, black robes, and demons? Yeah, that's some conspiracy theory stuff. Like aliens building pyramids. Not to mention a hurtful stereotype about the magic community." I could see her deflate at my words.

"So it wasn't aliens, huh?" Filip broke into our conversation, coming closer with Rey in tow. I looked from side to side, then leaned toward him.

"It was cats, actually," I whispered in a conspiratorial tone.

"Right," he chuckled.

"So, Mr. Samuel," he then switched to a more official business tone, "we really appreciate your help. And we would like to ask whether you might be open to helping us in the near future." I looked at him with a frown. There it was, the moment I had been waiting for. Without hesitation, I took a deep breath and answered him firmly.

"No."