The Hunter

Magic Detection and Ranging

"What was the name of the Cult?" Gloria asked from the desk at the library. The other patron in the computer lab shushed them and Finn glared at them. Their headphones were hanging around their neck and music was blaring out of them. After a moment the other patron dropped their eyes with a muttered apology and put the headphones over their ears. Gloria, watching the exchange, raised an eyebrow. "Name of the cult and teach me to do that."

"Do what?" Finn asked, turning back to Gloria.

"Force submission with a look. I've always wanted to know how."

"Oh, well." Finn went a little red. "Actually that one took a bit of magic. The cult members are calling themselves Sisters of Artemis. Something about hiding behind a similar abbreviation?"

Gloria shrugged. "Not a clue. Still though, it's a start." Gloria's fingers flew over the keyboard and a moment later the search engine was displaying over 100 thousand hits. Finn sighed.

"So many to go through. And I can't narrow it down much. I'll have to scry them." Finn growled. "Can you get me any pictures of the people involved though? That would be helpful."

Gloria looked at Finn confused. "It's literally the first search I've tried. I'll narrow it down from here, this first search only tells me what the algorithm thinks I want. Have you seriously been checking every single hit?"

Finn blinked. "Algorithm?"

"Seriously? You've been checking every hit?"

Finn blustered a moment before she took a deep breath and forced calm again. "What else can I do?"

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all the saints preserve my sanity." Gloria muttered and pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and index finger. After three deep breaths she went back to the computer. Within fifteen minutes she had six more names the group went by, two manifesto's, three affiliate organizations and circumstantial evidence towards two political figures that were being paid to turn a blind eye. She sent the last file to the printer and turned to look at Finn.

"Teach me to do the intimidation magic."

Finn, looking stunned and pale, met Gloria's gaze. "I can't teach you that." When Gloria opened her mouth to argue Finn held up a hand, palm out. "My magic works differently than yours don't forget. I knudged his brain and made his eyes see the world a little darker. If you tried that same thing you'd have fried his brain and melted his eyes out of his sockets."

Both women regarded each other for a moment. Finally Gloria narrowed her eyes. "How does your magic work?"

Finn stood up. "Hard to explain. It tends to be a little different for everyone the same way that your favourite chocolate may be your favourite for different reasons than someone else with the same favourite." She led the way to the front desk, allowing Gloria to change her course and take the lead to the printer. "Also it's comparative. I see it as lines that connect everything to various degrees. If I feel like driving myself insane I can hear it all too, but I could never get the hang of eliminating sounds so I tend not to do that. I can smell a difference in the air if the magic is being used or not. I can feel it the same way we feel wind on our faces, the air is always there, but sometimes it shifts."

Gloria waved to the librarian as they left, opening the door to the house and letting Finn lead.

"For my mom it was only the sounds. She would play music or sing to cast spells." Finn made her way to a door labelled 'Map Room' that had appeared while they were out. Discussions after training yesterday had included labels for rooms, especially if they were new.

"I can describe what it's like for me until the cows come home, but until you can experience the magic yourself I can't tell you where our abilities overlap. I can tell you they will, I'm just as capable as lighting a candle as you are with magic, but we will end up doing it differently."

"The difference between a lighter and a match?" Gloria asked as she entered the room and stopped. "I think the Pentagon would like their war room back." She said as she looked around the room that had appeared in every American military movie she had ever seen.

"That's a decent analogy actually. " Finn answered and looked around the room. " A good design is a good design. They knew that when they stole the idea from whoever they stole it from, just like every other nation has known it. You put the topic of discussion in the middle so you can see it from multiple angles."

"For a second I thought you were going to claim they stole it from you."

Finn cleared her throat. "No, although there's a lot here that wasn't last time so maybe we did steal something from them. I don't know. Really not sure why I'd need radar." Finn eyed the board on the wall that had circles moving away from a central point. A second one beside it showed a similar image, but with a lot more dots. Finn pointed at it and grinned. "MADAR. That's cute. I like that"

Gloria spread out the papers from the library. "If anyone asks, by the way, tell them we're writing a novel."

"What?" Finn asked, confused.

"We've done multiple searches for Cults, and some of the searches we linked to politicians and businesses. There's a chance we could end up on some sort of government watch list, so if anyone asks: we're writing a story. Novelists tend to get a free pass for strange searches like that."

"So do I." Finn said and tapped her temple.

"Oh, right." Gloria frowned. "Something I've been meaning to ask, and it's a bit of a topic change, but why would a cult even be on a magical watch list? They're just sad religious Zealots aren't they?"

"Careful, your prejudice is showing." Finn said with a very pointed look at Gloria. "Cults weren't always on our watchlist. Some of them were of course, the ones that involved us, but after 1978 all of them are."

"What happened?" Gloria asked and Finn held her in a calculating gaze for a few minutes that seemed like hours.

Finally Finn broke eye contact and nodded. "There was a cult that nearly made the leader into a god." She pursed her lips. "That's all the attention I'll give to it. This cult though, actually does seem to involve our people." She pointed to one of the politicians. "This one is a very talented alchemist. She specializes in potions that increase stamina and alertness."

"Magical coffee?" Gloria asked.

Finn chuckled. "Exactly. She owned and operated a really great coffee shop before she went into politics."

"Wait, so for real? Magical coffee?"

"Didn't I already say yes?" Finn asked, her head tilted to one side.