The Fox and The Wolf: A Tale of Modern Magic

Chapter 1 - Dead Men Tell No Lies

Cicero didn't like the new morgue, or the Coroner's Complex or whatever asinine euphemism they had for it. For one it was too big, and he could never find anything. For another it was too big, and meant way too many people. It was also way too big.

Cicero wasn't exactly overflowing with puissance at the moment so he didn't try to hypnotize any of the forensic services workers he passed by as he wandered around the morgue. He just walked with purpose, like he had every reason to be here, and as usual that worked on most people as well as any hypnosis.

The whole facility felt more like a school than a morgue. It was disarmingly well lit. That was another reason Cicero didn't like it. 

Finally he found what he was pretty sure was the room he had been looking for. For all he knew. He had been wrong the last three times he thought he found it but he couldn't be wrong forever. Inevitably one of the doors he opened would be the correct one, even if it was the last door in the entire complex.

Cicero walked confidently into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Hey!" said a tall, lanky man in a lab coat cleaning tools. "Who are you? You're not allowed to be here."

"Chill out," said Cicero. "Everything's fine. Look. Look. Look at me."

Cicero pointed two fingers back and forth between his own eyes and the coroner's. The coroner made eye contact.

Suddenly the coroner blinked, looked around confused for a moment, and went back to work like nothing was the matter. Cicero waved his hand in front of the coroner's face to test the spell, and the man ignored it.

"Good," said Cicero, "now I don't want this spell ending at an inopportune moment so I'm just going to go ahead and-"

Cicero took off a necklace he was wearing and placed it around the coroner's neck. The necklace had small resin ball on it that contained a strand of hair from a teen heart-throb who was briefly popular in 1984. It had more than enough symbolic power to sustain a basic mental block for days.

The coroner didn't notice that he was now wearing a necklace. He also failed to notice when Cicero went over to the giant wall of drawers, carefully read through all the names, and pulled out the one containing the body he was looking for. He just continued to clean his equipment.

Detective Gabriel Tremblay lay on the slab, the life visibly drained from his skin. His mouth was wide open in a way Cicero found undignified. His arms had obviously been broken in several places.

Cicero had seen breaks like these before. Gabriel's arms were broken in all the places that they break when all the instinctual prohibitions against using enough strength to hurt oneself is removed from someone's mind and they flailed around in unimaginable pain. This is what it looked like when you killed someone using mind magic. Nasty mind magic.

Cicero knew his friend wouldn't have wanted him to do this back when he was alive. He also knew that his friend wouldn't care anymore now that he was dead.

Cicero reached into his coat pocket and took out a small purse of coins. He looked through it until he found the luckiest one. Cicero was burning through all his good magical fetishes but he wouldn't be satisfied until he knew what happened to his friend.

Cicero placed the coin on Gabriel's forehead and pressed it down hard. He moved his hands and wove a soul magic spell around his friend's head, drawing on the power contained within the coin to fuel it. Once the magical pattern was self sustaining he whispered:

"Gabriel Tremblay."

Gabriel coughed.

"What happened? Where am I?" he demanded.

"Hey Gabe," said Cicero, stepping into view.

"Oh no," said Gabriel, "it's you. You did that creepy thing you do, didn't you? I'm dead, aren't I?"

"Yeah buddy," said Cicero. "I'm afraid you're dead."

"I would have thought that would be more upsetting to hear," said Gabriel.

"Well you're dead," said Cicero. "The dead don't care about much. Listen, Gabe, I know this is a lot to take in right now but my spell has a limited lifespan. I need you to focus and tell me what happened. Who killed you and why?"

"Isengrim," croaked Gabriel.

"What?" Cicero knew it would be bad, but not that bad.

"Simon Isengrim. He has his memories back and, well, you know."

"Yeah," said Cicero "I do know."

"He did something to me Cicero. I don't know how any of that magic stuff works but he did something to my head. He forced me to betray you all. I wouldn't have given you up, no matter what he did, it's just-"

"Gabe, don't worry," said Cicero. "I get it. You have no defences against stuff like that. Nobody blames you. What do you mean by 'you all'?"

"You, Aubrey, everyone," said Gabriel, "everyone from the business with Ted Rogers and the tower all those years ago. You know exactly who: all the people he's going to be coming for now that he has all his memories. I told him where to find you. I couldn't stop myself. I told him where to find every one of you."

"Even after all these years you were still keeping tabs on everyone, huh?" asked Cicero, smiling. The detective hadn't changed even after all these years.

"You people are dangerous," said Gabriel, flatly. "At the time it made sense to track your whereabouts. Looks like I should have minded my own business."

"None of this is your fault," said Cicero. "Okay?"

"Sure. Are you going to need me for much longer?" asked Gabriel. "It's real gross being inside your own corpse like this."

"Nah buddy, I have everything I need," said Cicero. "Have a good sleep."

He severed the connection between the spell and the coin, and all the life drained away from Gabriel's corpse. His head fell back onto the slab.

The coroner took the clean equipment and began to pack it away.

Cicero grabbed back his resin ball necklace. A few seconds later the coroner realized the door was slamming shut.

It was odd. He didn't remember it being open.