Copper and Mercury: A Periodic Tale of Minni the Witch

one¹

Wednesday, January 31st, 2018

3:01am

Okay, so the building may currently be a smoldering pile of ash, sure, but it was on fire when I got here. And, hey, I put it out: what more do you want from me?

Alright, fine, if you really want to know, this all started earlier this evening. For me at least. I was woken up from a nice dream by my phone going off. My boyfriend sleepily grabbed it, half handing it/half throwing it at me. It was terribly cute.

Thanks, babe, I mumbled as I tried to focus my eyes on the caller ID. I didn't recognize the number, and it wasn't an area code I was familiar with, either. I swore if this was some robo-call at 9pm, I was going to hunt down whoever thought that was a good idea and fry all their systems.

Hello? I answered.

Minni, it's Phil, he immediately said. I need you to come bail me out.

Out of what? I was not fully awake at that point.

Jail.

Huh. For whatever reason I was expecting him to say something a bit more supernatural, you know? A metaphorical bail than an actual bail. "You're in jail jail?"

Yes. He was exasperated and the line crackled.

You want me to get Ryan?

I don't want you to bust me out, he said in a whisper. The bail is only five hundred dollars. I don't have that on me.

I closed my eyes and almost fell back asleep. The rent’s gone through.

Minni… it’s nine o’clock. Have you already gone to bed?

The cat’s been fed, I mumbled, despite the fact that neither my boyfriend, nor myself, own a cat.

Okay, I need you coherent right now. His voice teetered somewhere between anxious and completely done with me. One of these is more normal than the other.

Alright, one sec. I placed the phone over my chest as I focused. I touched my aura and pulled at the magic, sending energy through my body. It was like a jolt of caffeine. I became energized to the point that I was wide awake. I sat up in bed, running my free hand through my hair as I went back to the phone. Okay, I'm awake. You got arrested?

Yes. Phil was definitely done with me. I nearly took down their booking computer so I’d like to get out of here before I cause any real damage.

Tell me what you need me to do.

Go by the shop, he said as I started to get out of bed. Ryan knows where I keep the petty cash, there should be enough. You'll need to use the shadow gate near the shop. Use the map, it's like two lefts and a right, to get you to Rome.

Italy? I almost squeaked.

Upstate New York. The connection crackled. Be as quick as you can.

I’m on it, I assured him but the phone cut off.

I went to the bathroom and considered taking a quick shower, and now I kind of wish I had. Seeing as I was at Marcel's, I had some clean clothes, though not a large selection. I grabbed yesterday's jeans, but they're jeans, so it's okay. It only took me like five minutes before I was putting on my sneakers.

You leaving? Marcel asked, finally joining the land of the living himself.

Yeah, gotta bail Phil out of jail. I started looking for my coat, having forgotten where I left it.

Marcel rolled over, frowning. What was he arrested for?

I dunno, I admitted because I honestly didn’t think to ask. Can't be all that bad, it's only a five-hundred-dollar bail. And it's Phil.

Want me to come with? He's such a sweetheart.

Nah, you sleep. You have to be up dog ass early, I reminded him. Marcel’s doing the early shift this week while one of his coworkers is on vacation. That means a really messed up sleep schedule for him, and for me as I try to be supportive and all that. No need for you to suffer, too.

I gave him a kiss, grabbed my stuff, and headed out the door. It was hella cold outside because, well, New York... in January. I'm from Nebraska, and I tell you, it's not natural for some place to be so cold, so often, for so long.

Yes, I know how climates work, that’s not the point.

Now, I’m really good at controlling energy. It’s my special skill. So it’s easy for me to create a thermal shield. It keeps me warm in these kinds of conditions. Doesn’t stop me from complaining about the cold though. You know, to keep up appearances. I also don't like to use it in front of Marcel because he might get suspicious of how I'm not freezing to death in this weather.

Oh, it had snowed, so that was fun.

I got to the Mercury Shop in decent time. Ryan waited for me at the front. The shop was already closed for the night, so he quickly unlocked the door and let me in.

What did Phil get arrested for? he asked as he locked up.

I dunno. I shrugged and headed towards the back where the shadow gate maps were kept.

You didn’t ask?

Didn’t seem relevant at the time. Translation: I never ask these things which is why I’m always getting myself into trouble.

Huh, was Ryan’s only comment.

I started sifting through all the ledgers that sat on a bottom shelf. Eventually I found the New York State book, pulling it out from under half a dozen others. With a thud, I sat it on the table and flipped through it to get to the R’s.

Oh, well, great, I said unenthusiastically. There are two Romes.

In Italy?

No, upstate New York. I pointed at the lines that listed both cities with completely different directions through the shadow realm. Who knew there was two of them?

Rome, New York? Ryan quietly questioned before making a sudden, oh sound.

What? I asked.

Werewolves.

Werewolves?

Werewolves.

"Ugh, werewolves."

Yeah. Ryan pointed to a Rome. We need to go there.

We?

Ryan grinned. "You think I’m going to miss bailing Phil out of jail?"

I chuckled, grabbing a notepad and writing down the directions. It’s cold out, dress accordingly.

Be right back. Ryan disappeared upstairs and I turned the paper over in my hands.

I wasn’t too keen to find out what led Phil to Rome and into a jail cell. I mean, werewolves are decent people. Unlike some other groups, they aren’t bent on world domination or have a general kill-all-the-things mentality. The packs just want to be left alone. They’re very adamant about that.

So, for Phil to go out of his way, in every literal sense, to deal with them? Let’s just say, I had a bad feeling about this.

Ready. Ryan came bounding down the stairs in hiking boots and about four layers of clothes, complete with a hoodie, coat, and scarf.

Oh, did you get the money?

Ryan padded his pocket. Yeah, we’re good.

Okay then. We let ourselves out the back door, locking up and setting the security ward to full power.

Now, a shadow gate is a fun little rip in reality. I’m sure there is an explanation that involves a lot of physics-speak but, whatever. Just know there are places where our world and the shadow realm touch close enough that it’s possible for people to cross between them. Well, it’s easier for those in our world to cross into the Shadow Realm than for shadow creatures to cross into ours because, again, physics. Yeah, not a big fan.

I’m an electrical engineer. I had to take exactly one physics class, one, and it was technically an elective.

Anyway, when Phil was looking for a place to set up shop, he found a building literally a stone’s throw away from one of these gates, or rips, tears, whatever you want to call them. The original builders of the area knew about the gate, so they designed the block around it. The back of the buildings lining the alley carried on until there was a small indention in one the structures.

People pass these all the time and don’t realize it. It’s looks like a small, gloomy, courtyard with a wrought iron fence. But there’s no way to get to it from the building, unless you want to climb through a window. So it becomes this slightly overgrown waste of space with random bits of litter that have no business being that far north from the nearest place you can find them.

There was no lock on the gate, because that simply invites people to break in and accidently fall into the Shadow Realm. And of course, if someone comes out of the gate, they don’t want to be locked inside the courtyard.

You ready? I asked Ryan as we checked to make sure we weren’t being watched.

I’m good.

`Kay. I took his hand and we walked through the nearly invisible cut in the fabric of reality. In theory, following a path set between the gates was safe, but one could never be too cautious when traveling in groups.

It can be difficult to describe the Shadow Realm, mostly because, like the Earth, it is as wide and varied in its geographical and environmental presentation. It can look like the stuff of nightmares, or Lake Como. It really just depends on who lives in that particular location. Never trust anything from the shadow realm, no matter what it looks like. For here, the beautiful is truly deadly, and the ugly probably just wants to play a good game of Canasta.

This particular section of the realm was a rolling fog bank over a slightly swampy landscape. There was no sun or moon, nothing that gave off an obvious source of light, but I could see about fifty feet in front of me. Ryan in tow, I kept walking for about six minutes until I got to the first left I was to take. It was represented by a sign post made of pig iron dug deep into the ground. It was placed there back in like the 1790s.

We went left, following the marker pointing us towards Shawmut Peninsula. After a few minutes, we took another left towards De-o-Wain-Sta, which is the native name for what you might know as the Oneida Carry. The directions required a bit of back-tracking, but you have to stay in the safe areas, avoid the quicksand as it were.

I stopped suddenly. Ryan bumped into me.

What? he asked.

I thought I heard something. I really did, but it was such a light whisper that I wondered if I had imagined it. Just because you are physically safe on the path doesn’t mean creatures can’t do their best impression of a siren and try to entice you to walk towards your own doom. It sounded like…

Okay, so back in September, there was this guy, Canton, and he, well, he tried to destroy the world, or maybe just Manhattan. He’s still in a serious magic-induced coma right now so we can’t exactly get that cleared up. Anyway, I had an empathy mergence with some memories he left behind in his old house. I saw him fall through the shadow realm using his grandfather’s focus item.

If you have a natural ability to manipulate the folds in reality that allow Shadow Realm travel, then you don’t have to take these paths like the plebeians do. The Elder Canton developed a workable travel spell into his focus item, aka his wedding ring, which was then passed down. Canton the younger used the spell on instinct to escape a deadly fire, but his trip through the Shadow Realm wasn’t as well controlled as it could have been.

Wouldn’t hell be better than this windowless world?

I tried to erase every bit of Canton’s memories from my mind, but these words which were spoken to him as he passed through the shadows, they are all that remain. And I could hear them whispered in the fog.

Minni? Ryan nudged me because we stopped.

This was the first time I’d used the paths in the Shadow Realm since the incident. It never once occurred to me that the voice would still be there.

Something to deal with later, I said, pushing us forward.

Yeah, no, I am not dumb enough to walk off the path completely unprepared just to chase down the whisper of a voice. If it was still there now, then it would be there later. And I would be ready for it.

We took a right after about three minutes, walked another six, and we arrived at our destination, another pig iron post. Thankfully Rome, New York, has its own Shadow Gate, which makes travel there pretty swift and easy. Well, aside from the whole trespassing on federal land part.

Back in the mid 1700s, the British built a fort to guard part of a trade route. They positioned it to also guard a Shadow Gate at the same time. They wanted to make sure the natives couldn’t use the gates to drive their colonizing assess back to the sea. This one was called Fort Stanwix and it was progressively built-on and abandoned several times over the years. Eventually the National Park Service built a reconstruction of it to serve as a national monument to white history. But they did do an amazingly good job at the restoration, I have to give them props for that.

The higher-ups in the Park Service are well aware of the Shadow Gates which dot a lot of their land. A small, empty building sat atop the tear at Fort Stanwix, guarding it. Ryan and I stepped out into the drafty, wood-log-built room, a dampness in the air from the fresh dust of snow outside.

Where are we? Ryan asked.

Let me check. I pulled out my phone and that’s when I learned everything I just said about Fort Stanwix. Well, not the first protected landmark I’ve ever trespassed in.

Try not to set this one on fire, Ryan mumbled as if I make a habit of setting things on fire. I don’t, actually. I’m more likely to electrocute than burn. Or use the nearest blunt object.

Okay, the police station is surprisingly not far from here. Google says a nine-minute walk.

Or faster if we get ourselves arrested, Ryan mused as he went and checked the door.

Use your third eye, I told him to do it because I didn’t want to. If whoever built this knows about magic, then there should be a designated path out of the fort, avoiding security.

Ryan blinked a few times, then nodded. Got it, let’s go.

It was dark out, but the was moon full in a clear-ish sky. I easily followed Ryan and saw no glimpse of another soul until we got out onto the street. Mostly it was just a few cars driving past, no one else bearing the cold, wet weather like us two idiots.

The Rome police station was a two-story sorta-red brick building that probably came out of the `70s if I had to guess. There was a large, blocky, transom window over the double-door entrance. A flat roof too, which I honestly don’t understand why anyone would ordain to put a flat roof on any building in a place where it actually rains.

Walking inside, the lobby was lined with a couple of chairs and a bench, flyers stuck up on the wall. The rest of the building was blocked by a heavy door. A receptionist sat behind a sheet of ballistic glass like a bank teller.

How can I help you? the woman asked in about as monotone voice as one could manage.

We’re here to bail out Phil McCree.

She eyed me for me for a second. One moment.

The woman disappeared off to her left, the two desks behind her unmanned and the area fairly quiet. I don’t imagine a town the size of Rome sees a lot of action on a Tuesday night. Well, when I’m not involved anyway.

There was a click and the side door opened up. A man who had cop written all over him, from his shoes to his belt to the cut of his hair, stepped out. He stopped and sized us up as quickly as I did him. Most people look at me and determine I’m not a threat. I try not to be, but sometimes shit happens.

I'm Detective Longtree, he introduced himself. Can I see your ID, ma'am?

Ah, sure. I slipped my driver’s license from my phone case and handed it over.

He took it, nodded to himself, then passed it back. I'm handling Mr. McCree's arrest. He said you were some kind of magic sink?

I channel energy, so yeah, basically. I’d already reached out and felt Phil's magical signature towards the back of the building. I started siphoning it off without even thinking about it.

Alright, I'll get him while you fill out some paperwork. He