With Victor's crew out grinding ghouls again, I was left with one more thing to do in the plaza.

  Now, I'm not a lazy guy. It just so happens this thing required some waiting and lazing about. It was another stakeout, of course. If I had a signature move, it would be this—patiently waiting for something to happen.

  My watch of the temple ended with the appearance of the long-awaited figure—Maggie. She exchanged a couple of phrases with the guards, and I was briefly concerned this was the reason for her emergence, but thankfully she eventually moved out into the plaza.

  Even with all her basic needs accounted for, guaranteed safety and sustenance, she still got out occasionally.

  That's just the way people are, I guess. Sometimes we need a change of scenery, social contact, or a new activity. We need to tickle that part of our brain that's afraid of stagnation and being left out.

  Boredom. Such a powerful emotion. It dictates our behavior on par with the rest of them, yet it remains underestimated.

  What does it say about Claire that she had never felt the same need to go out?

  Instead of going to the shop, playing a game of dice, or doing anything resembling fun, Maggie joined a group of people whose best way to describe their pastime was gossip.

  There were no ideas about the cause of our arrival or the nature of this place. No plans for the future or discussions on findings in or outside the city. Only useless chatter about people behind their backs, stories about how intimate relations could transfer energy between the participants, and even more useless anecdotes from their lives before their arrival.

  I had no reservations about cutting into her fun time the way I did. I was doing her a favor, really.

  "Red," I greeted her mildly, ignoring the distress my appearance caused.

  "Ahh, what?" she asked, surprised.

  "A word," I prodded her to follow me for a private chat.

  She didn't take much convincing, and we moved to find ourselves some privacy.

  "Didn't see you at the counterattack at the raiders' base," I noted. "Thought you were all for it?"

  "I am-was," she replied defensively. "I'm not much of a fighter anyway," she finished dejected, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

  "There was a whole group just to look tough," I reminded. "You didn't have to come to wave your arms around."

  "Yeah, well, I didn't feel it would be appreciated." It wouldn't be appreciated by Claire, left unsaid.

  "I thought the Temple supports- What was it?" I tried to remember the speech. "Free will? Or free choices? Whatever she said back then." I gauged her response. "Did she change her mind?"

  She shook her head.

  "Didn't say nothing," she denied. "But I know what she expects of us. She dropped enough hints that I can leave if I'm not satisfied with how things are run by her."

  Trouble in paradise, it seems.

  "Look, I'm sorry I didn't come there when I was the one that started the whole thing, but I have to return to my duties." Maggie turned to leave.

  "Wait up. I wanted to ask you something," I stopped the fidgety redhead.

  She silently waited for me to go on.

  "I have to know this. How do you create the weapons?" I asked.

  She looked at me, surprised.

  "Do you think she tells us that?" She asked. "Do you think anyone in the coven knows anything that didn't become widely known outside of it?"

  "Come on, there must be something."

  "Not for a year," Maggie shook her head. "A whole year as an initiate of the coven before we get to learn anything. She suggested we shouldn't even use the Sight, which, again, she didn't teach us, but I don't think that's gonna happen."

  "What about what happens in that closed room of yours?" I asked. "I saw you exiting it hand in hand. Brand new weapons right outta the oven."

  "I can't talk about that," Maggie hissed at me. "You should forget anything you saw back there."

  Oh. Good. The weapons were created back there and not just stored as I feared.

  "No, can do," I sensed blood in the water. "That's exactly what I'm interested in. So what was going on back there?"

  "I can't talk about it. I can't." Maggie backstepped. "She specifically ordered me to never talk about it."

  "You owe me one," I reminded her. "I did you a favor back then, and all I'm asking in return is some information. You won't exactly feel it missing, won't you?"

  It was a lousy excuse to get it out of her, but it might just work with the right amount of pressure.

  "But if I tell you this, and it comes back-"

  "I already saw the fog behind you," I continued to soften her up.

  "But- But then, what more do you want to hear? You already know as much as I do." She asked.

  "Everything. Give me the details. I know some things, but I'm missing others. I need to see the whole picture." I urged.

  "And if Clai- Um, the High priestess asks me about it?" Maggie asked. "She can tell when people are lying to her. What am I going to say then?"

  "Jesus, listen to yourself for one fucking second," I snapped. "It's not a coven. It's a goddamned cult. So stop calling her pretentious made-up names. Her name is Claire."

  I looked her right in the eyes, and while she couldn't see my eyes because of the mask, she must have felt it because she looked back at my face.

  "You are being kept on a leash so tight you don't even notice how you are suffocating," I berated her. "You have zero experience, you didn't learn anything, and you don't have a single pentacle to your name," I listed. "Of course, you are terrified to make a wrong move. You are totally dependent on her goodwill."

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "And you are not? Afraid?" She attacked me. "Last I heard, that was the reason you didn't join anyone. Scared much?"

  "Pff," I scoffed. "I'm being cautious of the dangers here. You can call it whatever you want if it makes you feel better, but remember this, I'm surviving on my own skill and merit, not as a glorified pet."

  Maggie stared at me angrily.

  "A pet, huh? There is a saying about biting the hand that feeds you," she spat. "A great reason not to tell you anything."

  Ohh boy. She wasn't going to forget this little insult anytime soon.

  "I'm giving you a reason," I said in a calmer tone. "A way out."

  She continued to stare a hole into me, daring me to continue. If we weren't in Lalaland, where anything was possible, I wouldn't be so worried that the hole would be quite literal.

  "Are you satisfied?" I asked. "With how things are?"

  She continued to stare.

  "Well? It's not a rhetorical question. Are you satisfied?" I repeated.

  "No," she said tersely.

  "And yet you don't leave, do you?" I asked.

  She was about to angrily reply again.

  "You won't because you can't," I quickly added. "You don't have the means to go on your own, and that's exactly what I'm offering you."

  I brought out an empty pentacle and showed it to her.

  "You're fairly filled up," I noted. "I'll put enough essence into it for a full restoration. That's enough for three, maybe four more days. Use that time to learn a new skill. I don't know, shoot fire out of those pretty eyes of yours, or join a hunter team and become your own person. Don't ever step back into that viper pit again."

  "I can't just disappear," she complained. "Claire will send someone to get me. She can find people using their names or a piece of hair. That's how she knew Mason was already dead when the cannibals got him."

  That was a major piece of information.

  "Then talk to her first," I suggested. "Tell her you are walking out. You don't want to be a part of the coven anymore and refuse to talk or answer any questions."

  She was mulling over it but wasn't convinced enough to take the bait.

  "Or stay," I offered. "If you're so opposed to the idea of leaving, stay. But you will have a stash for the inevitable rainy day when you'll have a falling out and have to leave anyway."

  This kind of falling out could easily have worse consequences than getting fired by an irate cult leader, but she had to work it out herself.

  I could see that was sealing the deal.

  Maggie was making her decision to take me up on my offer and still hold on to the safety the Temple granted her.

  She was trying to have the cake and eat it too. I didn't have high hopes for that working out for her, but who knew?

  I hoped Claire never asked her whether she sold her secrets. If she could magically tell the truth from lies, it wouldn't end well for Maggie.

  "Three full restorations," Maggie demanded. "I'm taking a huge risk here, and I'll tell you everything I know."

  "Tut-tut, hold your horses," I said, annoyed. "You said it yourself; you don't know anything. So you get one-" I lifted my hand to stop her from interjecting, "-and if your account holds something valuable that will help me in any way, you will get a second one."

  "And who will judge if it's valuable enough?" She asked. "You?"

  "My integrity is not in question here," I ranted. "The Handyman. Victor. Thomas," I listed, lifting a finger for every name. "That's a leader of a small hunters group," I clarified for the last one. "I had fair dealings with all of 'em and overpaid on every opportunity."

  Maggie thought it over again, staring at me, but she didn't hurry off to corroborate my claims.

  "Fine," she sighed. "I don't understand any of it, but I will tell you all I know."

  I waited patiently.

  The tension slowly bled away from her shoulders.

  "It was after C- Claire healed Victor," Maggie finally started her tale, her demeanor changing to the more reserved one I was familiar with as she relieved her first days in the Undercity. "I mean, even before that, she knew how to do some magic. She asked to train with me on her healing abilities."

  A small chuckle escaped her lips.

  "With me..." Maggie repeated, shaking her head. Red strands of hair swayed in sync with her movements. "I was always just the help, but it didn't feel that way at the start."

  She braced herself, putting a stop to the ramblings.

  "Anyway, after she helped herself to the ghoul Victor brought in earlier and Healed him, she said that it was all child's play, that the real magic requires a ritual." She looked straight at me again. "It took her some time to plan it all out and to rehearse it with me, and we did everything exactly as planned, but she wasn't satisfied."

  Maggie furrowed her brows while retelling it like she was still trying to piece the puzzle and, this time, finally understand everything that was going on.

  "The Morning Ritual, she called it," Maggie smiled. "It felt more like a school play, but at least we were doing something other than worrying and stressing about everything all the time. I felt good about it, even if it didn't work as she expected."

  I listened in rapt attention, feeling that every small detail may be the missing key I was looking for.

  "What was it supposed to do?" I asked.

  But Maggie just shrugged, showing her own incomprehension.

  "Then we went to the back room in the temple and tried another ritual," Maggie said thoughtfully. "She didn't say what this one was called or what it was supposed to do, but she had to have a sacred ground and a barrier against the world's energies."

  "That's why you chose to do it inside the temple?" I asked. "On sacred grounds?"

  Maggie shook her head.

  "That's not what I got from it," she denied. "She traced a circle in the ground and prayed inside of it. I think she meant the ground inside it would be consecrated."

  She took a moment to think things through again.

  "It was always prayers at the start. Claire prayed when she healed, she prayed when she thinned the first ghoul out, and in the Morning Ritual," Maggie said. "So she prayed inside the circle, and at first nothing happened, but then, slowly, this white mist that's everywhere in the city started to appear inside it."

  Her eyes rounded as she told this part of the story, and her voice lowered even more.

  "But she didn't notice it at all, eyes closed and praying without a stop," Maggie's face now looked riddled with worry. "The mist didn't stop either. It became thicker and thicker, and I couldn't see her anymore. It pressed against the circle's edges, but it didn't cross."

  She looked unfocused into the space between us, like it was happening in front of her.

  "I didn't notice it at first, but after she disappeared from view, I couldn't hear her either. So I called her. But she didn't answer," Maggie held her right hand in her left. "The circle wasn't that big, I thought, so I tried to grab her from outside. But there was nothing there." Maggie looked down. "So I thought she sat down or maybe fainted. I tried again closer to the ground. Nothing."

  I listened carefully.

  "Worse than nothing," her eyes looked hollow when she touched on that particular part. "I tried patting down the floor, but there wasn't even a floor. My hand just went through, and I almost fell inside."

  "I was horrified, thinking something bad had happened to her, bawling my eyes out. But she just steps out of there, smiling, laughing, excited like all her wildest dreams come true all at once," Maggie sniffed her tears away. "She didn't even get why I was crying. Like I was the one being irrational there."

  "Anyway, ever since then, she disappears inside. For hours on end most of the time. Sometimes she brings outside new robes or weapons. Sometimes, she just jumps inside quickly for a couple of minutes to bring stuff out. But I can't see or hear anything from inside, so I don't know how she does it."

  Maggie played with the sleeve of her robe, likely remembering it coming out of the circle when she got it.

  "What do the others in the coven think?" I asked. "You must've talked about it."

  "Nobody's even allowed into the room," Maggie shrugged. "And I can only stand near it, but if I step inside, it's all over. I would be forever lost," she stressed the last words like a direct quote. "I don't think anyone else in the coven ever saw it."

  I stayed silent, waiting for more, but Maggie looked like she had nothing else to add to the matter.

  "Come on," I coaxed her. "A little bit more. Did you notice anything else? Anything at all that Claire said about the circle or whatever's going on inside? Anything at all, even the smallest and most obvious thing."

  Maggie concentrated, it didn't look like she was holding anything back intentionally, but she could leave something out if she didn't think it important enough. And at this point, everything was crucial.

  "She never prays anymore," Maggie finally added. "Nobody prays anymore, and that's so strange. Moeta is a religious city, but everyone that got here isn't," she noted. "At the start, she prayed for every piece of magic, but after the circle, if she had to heal someone, for example, she would just touch them, and that's that."

  I waited for her to continue.

  "The way she refers to the circle also changed," Maggie remembered. "First time, she called it a doorway to the inner plane, then when more people joined us, it was just the circle."

  "What's an inner plane?" I asked.

  "Don't know," she replied. "It was always so cryptic with her. Manifest my will. The law of attraction. Doorway to the inner plane. Scared circles. She never explained any of that, and now we are not getting even those tidbits. Not ready for that yet, according to her," some of the annoyance came back into her voice. "But how are we not ready when we learned to use the Sight and to channel the inner light in the same exact way that everyone else did?" She asked rhetorically.

  The law of attraction. I was familiar with the concept. There was even a movie about that one. What was it called?

  It was just one more clue to my mounting suspicion that Claire tried some occult things she knew about, some of which incidentally worked for her.

  Still, it was vital information to have. I knew now that Claire's intent was 'to protect against the world energies' when she accidentally created the fog and that staying inside wasn't fatal though it transported somewhere where you could potentially get lost. According to her, that is. She wasn't lost when she disappeared there unprepared.

  How difficult would it be to find a way back if Claire managed it without concrete knowledge?

  Now that I think about it, I also did it from the very moment of my arrival. I was at the thickest of the fog and found my way to the city, despite space moving around me or whatever it did.

  Creating the fog was probably an unintended side effect. The same way that clearing it with the Sight was unintended but somehow was an emergent quality of the fog's yet unknown nature.

  The knowledge that the fog was kept in place using the same circle that created it was fantastic news, even without considering everything else. If we couldn't stop it from drowning us from outside the city, we could draw enough circles around some areas to preserve them for us. Though the question of the energy needed to sustain the spell remained.

  I thanked Maggie and paid her the agreed-upon price, the pentacle coins in my hand slowly building in charge as I filled it.

  Not only did I find the information important enough, but it was worth it, in my opinion, to cultivate this relationship and get even more out of her down the road.

  "I'd suggest finding a way to hide it," I told my precious source of information when I handed her the coin.

  Maggie's eyes lit up briefly when she confirmed the amount.

  "It's going to be safe in a friend's hands," Maggie nodded.

  I hoped she didn't misplace her trust, but it was her property to risk. Her rainy day could become much rainier if she didn't have anything to her name when she needed it the most.

  I said my goodbyes quickly, my head filled with ideas to try and spells to reinvent.