The Detective's Guide to Practical Sorcery

Where There's Smoke

Reiko wasn't sure why she hadn't collapsed into a violent fit of hacking up her defective lungs yet; after all, she was in the middle of a heated battle with sentient balls of fire. No pun intended.

    "What're you doing?! NOVICE!!!" Her screech echoed past the few trees in front of the apartment complex. A car narrowly missed her, it's horn blaring as it swerved around her in a wide arc. The street was never a good place to fight magical beings.

    She was taken down by three of the little fireballs. Their little flaming arms singed her back and arms while her partner struggled a short distance away to conjure up a protection spell as he'd been doing for the past two minutes while she got her ass handed to her.

    "I'm trying, I'm trying!" he screeched back.

    "Shit, shit, shit," she cursed, scrambling off the ground and brushing the little imps off of her. They chattered angrily at her.

    "Sorry!" said Novice. His spell had finally taken affect-- around him only. Reiko groaned and darted across the street for the nearest fire hydrant. She kicked at it aggressively and hoped she was doing something other than seriously bruising her foot. Her hopes were in vain.

    The unassailable creatures were fast approaching, and all Novice was doing about it was hiding behind his pathetic little shield. Fine, she guessed she'd do it herself.

    She summoned her energy and blasted whatever magic ended up happening at the thing; it exploded into a geyser of water, extinguishing the creatures.

    Panting, Novice dropped his waste of a shield. Reiko gave up her sense of dignity and doubled over in a coughing fit. Her back and arms, both exposed in nothing but a green tank top, stung terribly even as the water drenched her.

    "Hey, nice move!" said Novice. She didn't respond for the hacking.

    "Are you okay...?"

    "...it's...normal..." she choked out. Probably not knowing what else to do, Novice guided her away from the volcano of New York tap water. Finally, a decent decision on his part.

    "You sure? I'm not a doctor, but that doesn't sound very healthy to me," he said.

    Her chest abruptly decided to stop heaving for a moment. She straightened up even if it would only be for a about forty-five seconds.

    "It's not," she gasped. "It just happens sometimes. Holy hell, I need water."

    His finger rose to point to the surplus of water directly behind them, but she slapped his hand back down. "I hate you."

    "I do, too."

    The young lesbian couple who'd called them about their little fire problem in the first place were peeking around the corner of their apartment complex at the two sorcerers. Reiko swallowed the tiny bit of blood that'd come up and trudged over to them. Hesitantly, the tall brunette held out a twenty dollar bill. Reiko, hacking into her sleeve, took the payment, nodded, and shoved it into the damp pocket of her shorts.

    "Some of them got away, we think," said the shorter one.

With an exasperated pant, Reiko turned to the unfairly dry man behind her and muttered, "Cue the Jerry Lee Lewis."

Novice leafed through the pages of a book, trying to hold them down as the fan blew unmercifully through Reiko's tiny flat. When you opened the door you were already in danger of falling out the back window, but somehow the girl made it work even with all the little trinkets she had to keep on hand.