Jack followed the fire bird across the city. He frowned as the houses dipped in

  quality. He wondered if he could fix any of them without causing problems. He

  landed in the road just as the magical searcher landed on the roof of one house in

  particular. He switched back so he could walk to the door and let his watch recharge.

  Josie’s bird vanished. This must be the place. He knocked on the door.

  Lord Cilt opened the door. He frowned at Jack. Then memory kicked in. He stepped

  out of the house.

  “How’s things?,” said Jack. He had an eye on the street. Some people were watching,

  but no one was coming up to directly intervene.

  “I have a job as a clerk so we can get money to live,” said Cilt. “I had savings, but I

  am holding it for when we need it. I’m amazed that you found me.”

  “Josie can find anyone in the city,” said Jack. “Would you mind showing me your

  land?”

  “It’s late,” said Cilt. “Are you sure you have time to look at a place out over the

  wall?”

  “I have the time,” said Jack. “Is Madeline here? We should bring her with us.”

  “I’ll get her,” said Cilt.

  “Tell her to wear a coat,” said Jack. “It will be cold the way I travel.”

  “I’ll tell her,” said Cilt. “What should I say?”

  “Tell her that I want to see the land, and talk about what you’re going to need to set

  back up,” said Jack. “Depending on how big the place is, you might need help to get

  things going for you again.”

  “We didn’t have a lot of money coming in from rent,” said Cilt. “Let me get

  Madeline.”

  “Don’t forget coats,” said Jack.

  “I’ll remember,” said Cilt. He went back inside. He came out a few minutes later,

  pulling on his coat. Madeline was at his side, pulling on her own coat. “I don’t

  understand why you want to go out to the old place.”

  “I went over your tax situation, and my partner and I think we came up with a good

  solution,” said Jack. “But you’re going to have to pay the taxes that come up on the

  estate, or lose it again. I just wanted to see things for myself, and see if there is

  anything else that needs to be done before I step away.”

  “You think you came up with a solution?,” asked Madeline.

  “I think so,” said Jack. “Ready? This will be cold, but once I know where we are

  going, actual travel should be over in minutes.”

  “I think we’re ready,” said Cilt. He glanced at Madeline, who nodded in agreement.

  “All right,” said Jack. “Get ready.”

  Jack checked his watch and he had enough to do a short trip outside the wall. He

  switched to Gravity, becoming an outline of a person. He gave a thought and the three

  of them flew into the air. He headed straight up so they could see the city and land

  around it.

  “Which way do we go from here?,” said Jack. He spun around. Flying in the night sky

  was great. It was like swimming in a dark ocean.

  “Do you see that tower in the distance?,” said Cilt. He pointed at an obelisk amidst

  the trees. “That’s our lookout. The main house and lands are behind that.”

  “Let’s see what’s there,” said Jack. He put on the speed and dragged them to the stone

  tower sticking out of the trees. He spotted a house and overgrown lawn and garden

  in a cut out section of the forest. A dirt road led back to the main road into the city.

  “It will need work to bring it up to what it was,” said Cilt. He hugged Madeline as

  they floated toward a landing.

  “Give me a moment to examine things,” said Jack. “That place in town looked okay.”

  “It’s my parents’,” said Madeline. “I don’t think they want me to stay with Davod.”

  “Poor lords aren’t great supports,” said Jack. He smiled at them as he gently put them

  down and let the persona go. “They are usually spendrifts who are a step away from

  dragging down everyone around them.”

  “I had a good hand on things until the court turned against me,” said Lord Cilt. “I

  don’t understand why they would do that.”

  “Someone paid the judge to do that,” said Jack. “I gave him a second chance. It will

  be years before he can bother anyone in the city again.”

  “That’s good,” said Madeline. “So Davod has the land back again?”

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  “I have the order for him,” said Jack. He handed over the paperwork. “Hang on to

  that. You’re going to need it to prove your claim. Let’s have a look at the house. I

  want to make sure that you guys can live in the house until you can hire someone to

  help keep the place up.”

  “Why are you helping us?,” asked Madeline.

  “I don’t know,” said Jack. He walked up to the front door. He knocked on the door.

  Nothing moved at his blow. He checked the door and found it had been locked. He

  didn’t want to knock the door down, but he didn’t want to be delayed.

  “They took the keys when they evicted me,” said Cilt. “The property manager had a

  set but I think they took those too.”

  “It’s okay,” said Jack. “I’ll look around from out here. I don’t want anything living

  caught up in what I am about to do.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Cilt.

  “You have custody of your home again,” said Jack. He touched his watch and became

  the Vision. He looked through the house and under it. It had been stripped bare of

  everything. He frowned at that. He would have to put in a little bit more work. He put

  the persona away. “You can still be evicted over the livability of it if the Duke wants

  to impose the housing codes out here. So I am going to fix that, and then you’ll be

  able to bed down here if you want. You still might have to get guards to protect the

  estate from outlaws, but this will be the best I can do at the moment.”

  “I can try to locate the old staff and see if they will come back,” said Cilt. “Some of

  them will surely have found other places to live while I was trying to fix things.”

  “I can’t answer for that,” said Jack. He looked around at the overgrown grounds and

  the forests beyond. “I’m hoping the two of you will be okay until you get everything

  back where you want it, or better than that. If you have other problems you think I can

  help you with, talk to Master Guin and he’ll send me a message no matter where I am

  so I can help you again. I’ll be chasing people so I don’t know where I will be, or if

  I will be in Hawk Ridge while I am working.”

  “I understand,” said Cilt. “The estate didn’t have problems with monsters when we

  were working it. I don’t know what it will be like now.”

  “You probably won’t have a lot to worry about,” said Jack. “I can put up a wall

  around the estate, but anybody who wants to get in, will. Just be careful, and have a

  weapon ready to use in case of trouble. I’m going to clean the house out and cut some

  of this grass down. The rest will be up to you.”

  “How are you going to do that?,” asked Madeline.

  “Magic,” said Jack. He summoned his spell caster and did some quick figuring in his

  mind. The weird math he used came naturally to him in this persona, but he knew he

  would never be able to figure out the formulae when he was normal.

  The first thing to do was clean the house out so Cilt and Madeline could live in it

  without getting black lung. Maybe fix holes in the walls where rats had chewed

  through things. The best way to do that was a ring pulled from the grass and

  underbrush that needed to be cut anyway.

  Jack built a ring around the house from the dead flora that he had caused with his

  magic. When he had the iron construct ready, he channeled enough energy into the

  ring to reset the house until it was brand new with no problems at all. He lit one lamp

  so if Cilt and Madeline wanted to enter, they would have a light to see by.

  Everything looked better from Jack’s point of view. He threw the ring around the

  land. A wall of stone erupted out of the metal and blocked the house from the road

  as far as he could tell.

  Jack let the persona go as the door opened for them.

  “Do you guys want to stay out here tonight, or look at it in the daytime?,” said Jack.

  “I can drop you off on the way home, but you will have to get your own horses to

  come back out here.”

  “I think we can stay out here,” said Cilt. “What do you think, Madeline?”

  “I think we should stay tonight, and look at everything in the morning,” said

  Madeline. “We should decide on what we need in the daylight. Then we can get

  someone to help us with furniture, and whatever we need.”

  “We can ask your parents to help staff things,” said Cilt. “We might only be able to

  open the bottom floor.”

  “Will you two be okay out here?,” said Jack. He created a sword in a scabbard from

  a bush and handed it over before he let the persona go. “Be careful with this. It’s

  sharper than sharp.”

  “I don’t know why you helped me,” said Cilt. “But I won’t forget this.”

  “I helped you because I wanted to,” said Jack. He smiled. “It’s not everyday someone

  stands up to protect their true love from a monster. That’s impressive on its own. And

  then we have evidence that someone was targeting more than you with fake tax bills.

  Stopping that was in the mandate for my job.”

  “Your job,” said Madeline.

  “I’m here to protect people and put down monsters,” said Jack. He grinned.

  “Sometimes they are the same thing. I have to take off. Have a good life.”

  “You’re invited to the wedding,” said Cilt. “We will keep a space for you.”

  “I’ll let my beloved know,” said Jack. “Good night, Lord and Lady Cilt.”

  Jack took to the air and headed to where he had left the airship. He should have

  thought of putting up something to keep people from the launchpad. Now he had an

  idea on what to do so he didn’t have to worry about it.

  He took a tree and turned that into a ring around the cleared land where the house

  used to be. He put a spell on it as it spun into the ground. He made sure that a mana

  charger kept the ring working. He keyed the ring to himself and the others of his

  group so they could approach overland instead of using the gate from the Hole in the

  Wall. He nodded when the spell went active. A passive push would tell people and

  animals to stay away from the ring, and the launchpad.

  Anyone would be able to see the quinjet take off, but they wouldn’t be able to get

  close enough to do anything unless they had a power of their own.

  Jack checked his work, before letting the persona go and sitting down on the grass.

  He stared up at the sky. He had to think about how he could deal with a Lich Queen.

  Brother Voodoo and the Human Torch might be the best weapons in his arsenal

  against a monster like that.

  He controlled spirits and set monsters on fire. You don’t get much better than that in

  dealing with a zombie making monster.

  He picked himself up. He had to get home. He needed to shake the day off and work

  on things, try to find the subjects of his quests. Then he had to do something about

  them.

  He wished he was the one going off with the adventurers instead of Josie. He didn’t

  know them, and didn’t trust them. And he liked to think he could handle himself

  better in dangerous situations.

  He took a moment to take one last look around. This could be a secondary base if they

  wanted to leave the city. He would miss the apple pies.

  He smiled. That should be the last thing on his mind. He could grab an apple pie any

  time he wanted.

  He pulled the lever and let the lid open so he could drop down in the bay. He closed

  the roof. He walked over to the stargate and went home.