4 comments/ 12937 views/ 3 favorites Bishop Ch. 01 By: GypsyGirl84 Chapter 1: Opening Moves I: The crime scene was located in suburbia Virginia, in a nondescript middle-class cul de sac. I pulled up in my beige sedan as a team of agents with "FBI" on their windbreakers were loading up. They all gave me one look. None of them gave me a second. I try to be unworthy of second glances, both through my attire and a few magical charms. I'm six foot one, lean without being too thin, and have a face that's instantly forgettable. It was a warm sunny day; too pretty to need my special abilities. "Hey Bishop." I turned to see an agent talking to two women, both lookers, both in their late teens or early twenties. "Hey Charlie." Unlike me, Charlie only has a little of "The Gift". Just enough to get a "hunch" once in a while and to know when to call in me or someone like me. My name is Bishop. That's not a first name or a last name or even a title. It's a codename. Some magical theorists over at the National Security Agency came up with the idea that throwing around your given name might give a bad guy a better chance of learning your secret name. Which is not a good thing for an agent wielding magic. So when I joined the Bureau they gave me a list of randomly generated code names to pick from. Bishop was my automatic choice. I prefer to handle problems from an angle rather than straight on. Plus, I'm just a notch below being the King. Good enough to be a chief research assistant, but not good enough to be the project head of my own research. I've gotten over that now. Being a field mage for the bureau let's me be my own boss. Plus I get to see lots of interesting things. Charlie left the two women standing talking to themselves and joined me. "Missing person case here. Three co-eds at the local college sharing this house. Third roommate was in the backyard. When her roommates called her in for lunch, she had disappeared." I rubbed my chin, thinking to myself that I needed a shave. "So? What's that got to do with me, Charlie?" "Follow me." Charlie led me into the backyard where I could see a hole in the ground and part of the back fence was missing. And then it struck me. The missing portion was a perfect cube. The sides and bottom of the hole were smooth as glass. I whistled. "Forensics find anything?" "Nothing in the realm of science," Charlie replied. "And the roommates never heard a sound. Neither did any of the neighbors. With that and the shape of the hole , I figured the best thing I could do was call you in." I closed my eyes and did a quick reading. This was complicated magic. Nothing an amateur could have pulled off. We were dealing with a major player. "The disinformation team here yet?" "Just around the corner, Bishop. They wanted you to get whatever you needed from the scene before they moved in." I nodded and started collecting samples. The government's official position is magic exists but the public doesn't need to know that magic exists. Not just our government. That's pretty much the position of all governments. And from what I can tell, the public is happier and safer that way. For the record, the gnomes in Zurich don't run the world economy. But they do have someone sitting on all the boards of the major corporations. I collected dirt samples, air samples, and bits of the fence. I nodded to Charlie to let him know he could call the disinformation team in. Then I climbed in my sedan and drove to my lab in West Virginia. II: I drove my samples and myself to an underground facility in West Virginia. The road leading up to it looks like a dirt road leading to an abandoned barn. Most people don't even see the road and those who do forget they've seen it five second after they passed it. If you go down the road, you'll find it's guarded by---well, you'll probably be happier not knowing what's guarding it. But trust me, it's very well guarded. Once inside, I made my way to my office and laboratory, nodding to my fellow federal mages along the way. Walking into my lab, I put the samples on a table and looked at the picture of our attractive abductee, one Ms. Amber Wades, provided by her roommates. It's an old picture, from her senior prom. By the surroundings I can tell she's petite, maybe five foot to five foot three, olive skinned, long dark hair and brown eyes. She's what would be called in polite circles as statuesque. Being an admirer of cleavages, I admired hers in the picture before I reluctantly put it away. Running tests, I can tell a teleportation spell has been used, and one reaching over a fairly long distance. Which means the mage who cast it was capable of powerful and complex spell crafting. Not good news at all. The federal government is very good at ensuring that budding mages are either working for the forces of good or are working at pushing up daisies. And at this task the government is very, very good. Which means that someone got past the government's screening. Not good. Not good at all. There was also another spell at play here, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was. So I reached into the drawer of my file cabinet and pulled out a bag of charcoal briquettes. Then I summoned my "Tinkerbelle." My advisor in college would be aghast that I didn't refer to my "tinkerbelle" by its Latin name or a derivate thereof, but all the investigators I knew called them "tinkerbelles". They're tiny fire elementals that look like a rough outline of Tinkerbelle, except composed entirely of flame. They possess the ability to shape time and fire (though on a very limited scale), making them very handy assistants in reconstructing crime scenes. As soon as my "tinkerbelle" (though you can no more own a "tinkerbelle" than you can own a cat) appeared, I tossed her a charcoal briquette. She caught it, embraced it, and happily consumed it. For some reason, charcoal briquettes are to a "tinkerbelle" what catnip is to a cat. So it pays to keep plenty on hand. After she finished, she floated in front of my face and asked me what I wanted. A lot of times I summon her just to feed her treats. I have fellow investigators who tell me I'm too soft, that I should use the stick as well as the carrot. It is true you can compel assistance, but I've known more than one colleague who suffered from having to use compelled assistance. Besides, I like my "tinkerbelle." In the end, I believe mutual respects pays off bigger. I pointed to the samples and told her what I thought had happened and could she find out more, admonishing her to be sure she was careful. She sniffed disdainfully at this last warning, and then floated over the samples. She had actually saved me from a nasty magical trap one time on her own initiative. Compelled "helpers" will do exactly what you tell them to do, and not one iota more. Another argument for treating "tinkerbelles" and other magical beings as friends and not tools. Once she was finished and told me what she had found, I whistled low and thoughtfully. Tossing her another charcoal briquettes with my gratitude, she disappeared contentedly. This was a very powerful mage I was facing. One out of my league. I was going to have to call in help. Lots of help. A quick discussion on the nature of magic would explain why. The spell cast on our beautiful abductee had three parts. The first part was a sleep spell. This is relatively easy magic. Putting someone to sleep or compelling them to tell the truth doesn't alter reality. It just channels reality in ways that already exist. Your just picking the way you want it to go. The second part was a teleportation spell. This doesn't alter reality permanently, but bends it for a short period of time. Our abductee was transported somewhere between fifty and a hundred miles. I could probably pull that off with a booster potion and three days research. Maybe. But you're still not altering reality. Not permanently anyway. Just bending it a little, then letting it snap back into place. The third part was the kicker. It had altered reality permanently. I could tell that our abductee had been shrunk. Remember all those old fairy tales about princes being turned into frogs and swans? Keeping someone's intelligence intact while changing their form, especially to a much smaller form was not an easy thing to do. And none of the old spells are in existence anymore, though you hear legends of mystical grimoires in hidden, demon guarded caves from time to time. And even if you had a copy of such a spell, you would have to possess the ability and the training to wrap your mind around it in order to cast it. Or the ability (and the resources) to research it. Not an easy thing to do. Trust me on this. Lots of help was going to be needed here. Lots of it. I updated my untimely demise file (which magically forwards the cases I'm working and all the information I have so far to my superiors in case of untimely demise, hence the name) and then gathered up my samples. At some point I would turn all this over to my boss, but not right now. I wanted to know a little bit more before I did. III: I checked my GPS receiver and got the coordinates for the abductees' house and then called the cartographer's office, telling him I needed a satellite picture of a hundred and fifty mile radius of that point. I needed the picture as fast as possible, I told him, as I was dealing with a kidnapping case. Time was of the essence. Waiting impatiently, I was reviewing my Grimm's Fairy Tales when the picture arrived. I stretched it out on my desk and then went and got a crystal. The one I got was diamond shaped, hollow, and on a silver chain. I put a splinter of the fence in the crystal, as well as a few grains of earth, and a single thread from a sock of hers, again provided by the roommates. Hanging the crystal over the picture, I waited. The crystal hung motionless, then began moving in circles, before pointing to one spot. I circled the spot in red, punched in the spot on my GPS receiver, and then folded the picture and put it in my untimely demise folder. I knew it was stupid. There was no way I could face down a mage powerful enough to cast this spell. But one of the things I enjoyed about my job was the independence it afforded me. And I wasn't ready to give up that independence just yet. I'd drive up and check out where the abductee was, get the lay of the land, and then call in the cavalry. * * * I found myself driving in North Carolina, too keyed up to enjoy the scenery. I had checked out a Jeep Wrangler from the motor pool, one without a government license plate. My GPS receiver led me straight to a single wide trailer parked on a one and a half wide paved country lane. I was observing it through binoculars and feeling confused. There were two things I should have been detecting: Enough magical ambience to power a medium sized city, or nothing, because the mage inside was good enough to mask his powers from anyone except an equally powerful mage. Instead, there was a weak and scattered ambience. Something that I would pick up from a country hex master, who would stay below official notice unless he got into too much mischief. I started sneaking in closer to the trailer, ready to blast my way out with gun and wand if it was a trap. It wasn't so far. I peered inside a not too clean window and saw our abductee. Amber Wades, that was her name, I remembered. She and the missing part of her backyard (both definitely shrunk) were in an aquarium. Amber was cowered in a corner as a somewhat unkempt man in a plaid shirt and tattered jeans peered in at her, knocking on the glass with his knuckles from time to time. From the magic I detected from him, he was the country hex master I had detected earlier. But still no signs of our ubermage. I moved toward the trailer's front door, and with a few words and a gesture, ripped the trailer door off its hinges, sending it flying. "Freeze! FBI!" The man spun around and pulled out a charm from his pocket. This is where I made a mistake. I was waiting for a super mage, and had a spell ready, a giant ball of flames. I didn't expect it to defeat the super mage who had abducted Amber Wades, but I did expect it to stun him long enough for me to get out of there. But instead of a super mage, I had a small-time warlock. When he went for the charm in his pocket, my instincts took over. I cast the flaming ball. All that was left of him afterwards was ashes. Inside the aquarium, tiny Amber went into hysterics. I didn't have time to address her situation right then and there. I was still convinced that this was all an elaborate trap set by the super mage. I checked the ashes first. Yep, this local witch was dead. I looked around the trailer, still on my guard. No traps or super mages, but I found a blank parchment. Part of the mystery solved, at least. Let me give you a short lecture here on magic: In order to cast certain enchantments, you must not only possess knowledge of the spell and whatever arcane ingredients are required to cast it; you must possess a mind powerful enough, complex enough, and trained enough to wrap your mind around that spell. Even if I possessed the legendary book of Solomon, I would have to possess the wisdom of Solomon himself to bind djinnis and efreets as he was able to do. I have a feeling the local mage I had just incinerated probably had enough power to find a lost set of keys, but not much beyond that. However, it is theoretically possible to write a one-shot spell, allowing a less powerful mage to cast a spell (only once, though) that he would normally be unable to use. How powerful the spell depends on the mage who creates the scroll. Theoretically, I suppose, the bumpkin wizard back there could have shrunk and transported Amber with a scroll, but that would mean that the manufacturer of the scroll was unbelievably skilled. And writing scrolls is not for the uninitiated. It is a dangerous process, and until the scroll is used, some small part of your power is bound into that scroll. I couldn't have written a scroll on any of my spells that the country wizard could have used. I was gaining more and more respect (and dread) of this unknown super mage. Amber's tiny sobs were getting through my introspection and I returned to the aquarium. Around the aquarium was a fairly complex shielding, and a rather subtle trap for anyone trying to remove it. It was in my ability to remove both, but just barely. All this had been built into the parchment spell. Impressive. Leaning over the aquarium, I told her in my softest voice, "Ms. Wades, it's all right. It's all right. I'm with the FBI. I'm here to rescue you." For some reason, I felt compelled to stroke her luxurious hair with my finger as I tried to reassure her. I don't know if it was my voice, my touch or what, but she seemed to start relaxing. "Ms. Wade, I will get you back to normal. That's a promise," I continued, even as I wondered to myself if that was an empty promise. "But I'm going to need to lift you out of there so I can examine you and the spell that was put on you." Not even the mention of magic seemed to disrupt the calm that had come over her. I lowered my other hand into the aquarium and she quietly crawled into my palm. She felt so warm and soft as she rested in my palm. I lifted her slowly upward to my face and continued running my finger across and through her hair as I examined her. She was wearing a pair of overall torn off just above the knees. Underneath she had a red scoop neck blouse that did wonders in displaying her marvelous figure. I continued stroking her hair as I added soothingly, "It will be all right, Ms. Wade, it will be all right." IV: (From Amber's Point Of View) The last four hours were a nightmare. I had been in our backyard, planting one of the flower beds. Jas and Del were great roommates. But I ended up doing all the yard work! Then I ended up in this glass tank with this huge ugly face leering over me and ordering me to do things. I tried to hide but there was nowhere to hide. The only thing that save me was every time the huge ugly face's hand tried to reach in and grab me it was covered with lightning. But it was a nightmare that would not end. And then the first giant disappeared in a flash of fire. A second giant appeared and I wondered what new nightmare was going to start. The second giant disappeared and then reappeared gazing into the tank. I curled up and hoped he couldn't get to me too. But he said some strange words and sprinkled some kind of dust over the top. This one could get to me! But he started talking to me in a low quiet voice, stroking my hair with his finger. A strange calmness settled down on me. I crawled into his palm and he continued petting my hair as he explained how magic had shrunk me down to five inches and teleported me here but he was going to fix everything. I know I should have freaked out when he said magic. But somehow I knew I could trust him to fix things or try his hardest anyway. The giant held me up close to his face and I noticed he had very green eyes. I notice his finger had slid down my back and was giving me a very relaxing massage. By now the talk had died and I was just enjoying his touch. I tucked my legs underneath myself and leaned forward under his touch. And almost giggled when I saw him sneaking glances down my top. It's really hard to sneak a peek when the peeker's eyes are as big as your head. The only thing that I regretted was not having worn a bra to work in the yard. The coolish temperature and his finger on my back were starting to have a noticeable effect. "I really should stop" he whispered as he continued massaging back. "Please don't," I responded, "It feels nice." He probably should stop but this was the first thing that had felt nice all day. He started caressing my shoulders next and I noticed as he stroked down my arm he would pull one of my overall straps down my shoulder. I didn't know what to do or say and his caressing finger pulled one strap undone, then the other. Then he begins massaging my back with the thumb, slowly pulling my overalls down to my waist. I leaned forward on all fours as he continues massaging my back with his thumb. He was very careful about not going below my waistline. I didn't know if I should be relieved or disappointed. I did know he was looking straight down my top and not trying to hide it. He moved his finger back to my head, brushing my hair with his fingertip. "You are so beautiful, Amber. So soft." I sat back up and blushed self consciously, reaching toward my overalls and thinking about pulling them back up. I froze in place as his finger caressed one arm then the other. My hands fell limply to my side. My breath caught in my throat as he caressed my collar bone with his fingertip. It felt like we were motionless for an hour. Then he slowly brushed the back of his finger down and over my breasts. I felt like bolts of pleasure completely consumed me. I'm not sure what happened next. All I know was I was stretched out on my back in his palm and his finger was gently exploring one breast then the other. He seemed utterly fascinated with them and I was hoping he wouldn't lose his fascination with them anytime soon. I didn't have much experience. In fact, I'm a virgin. But I've never enjoyed any of my make out sessions this much when I was full sized. I moaned loudly when he started using his thumb to press down softly and massage my right breast and then the left. His thumb would occasionally slide down my stomach and under my overalls, trying to tug them off. I giggled and sat up. "Let me help". I kneeled forward, unsnapped the bottom half of my overalls and started pushing them down. Once I got them past my hips he pulled them all the way off. He seemed mesmerized by my bare legs and bikini panties as I sat up again. He stroked them lightly, working his way up to my bottom. I leaned forward and moaned as he stroked up and down my back and buttocks. Then his finger moved to my front again. Bishop Ch. 01 He began caressing my breasts again with his thumb, occasionally stroking my shoulder. I realized he was pushing down the straps to my top. Barely stifling a giggle, I thought it was endearing how he was just not ripping stuff off. I pushed his thumb back and slipped my arms out of my straps. "Does this help?" He didn't reply but ran his thumb across the top of my breasts, slowly pushing my top down. Giggling, I said, "It probably pulls up faster than it does down." I lifted just enough material for him to grab a hold of it between finger and thumb and lifted my arms as he lifted it off of me. "Oh, Amber, you are so lovely," he whispered as he gazed down on me. One finger brushed my hair behind my back as he continued to gaze. At this point I thought I knew what pleasure was. I was so wrong! He ran a finger underneath my breasts and lifted them; then as they fell, drew his finger across both of my hardened nipples. I thought pure electricity shot from my nipples straight to between my legs. He continued exploring me and delighting us both. I almost moaned in disappointment when he set me down on the table until I realized he wanted to free both his thumbs so they could massage both breasts simultaneously. I was in Paradise. He again picked me up in his hand and I wondered what new ecstasy awaited me. He moved me toward his mouth and I started struggling. "Amber, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want...a taste." I nodded and relaxed. I shouldn't have worried. His tongue darted out, delicately across my chest, licking my right breast then my left before he brought me to his lips. He took both my breasts between them and gently suckled them. One wave of pleasure after another overtook me. He moved me away from his mouth and started trying to tug on my panties. I didn't know if I could take much more but I thought I can't stop now! I pushed my panties down far enough so he could hook them with his finger and pull then down the rest of the way. Again he stared, and hoarsely whispered. "Amber, you are so perfect." He placed a fingertip between my legs and started rubbing in small circles. I gasped at the effect. "You have such a pretty pussy." Breathing heavily, I replied, "I---don't---really like---that word." "Is kitty better?" I nodded, not having the energy to reply, and in fact losing all focus except for his finger between my legs. "A little faster---please! And harder! Not much, just---a little!" He responded and I felt another orgasm building. When this one came I felt as if my entire body had exploded and my last memory was drifting into a blissful deep slumber, curling up in the warmth of his hand. V: I looked down at the slumbering little nude body of Amber and ran my finger down her side. She smiled in her sleep and pushed into my fingertip. I snapped my head back then, shaking my head and looking around. If the super mage had been setting a trap I would have been helpless. Closing my eyes, I detected no magic, save for the ensorcelled Amber in my palm. Guiltily, I gathered Amber's clothing with my empty hand, putting it in my jacket pocket. I then took another look at Amber, sleeping in my palm. My finger, with a mind of its own, slid from the side of one her breasts down to her hip. She moaned happily in her sleep and rolled onto her back. Okay, Bishop, I thought to myself, you have got to snap out of this. What was my fascination with her breasts, anyway? Let me say for the record that what had just happened was uncharacteristic of me. At least on the job. Somehow, though, acting on the physical attraction between us just seemed the most natural thing in the world. Maybe it has something to do with our ubermage. Something to consider, anyway. I looked around for somewhere to set her down and/or carry her. An idea struck me. I touched my shirt pocket. It instantly elongated into a diagonally placed down filled sleeping bag attached to the front of my shirt. (Tailoring magic is fairly easy and really useful for those on a tight clothing budget. After all, you're not altering reality, just channeling it in specific courses.) Sliding Amber's unconscious body into my "pocket", I buttoned her safely in and then took a final look around. Other than a few samples from the aquarium and the used scroll, there really was nothing of interest. Except maybe the velvet Elvis hanging on the wall. But nothing of interest to me in my investigation. I stepped outside and turned on my cell phone, calling my boss. I started filling him in on everything that had happened to me, leaving out my more...ahem, intimate interactions with Amber. He started to chew me out for coming out here without backup, but his heart wasn't in it. He was too interested in what had happened. He also was fairly confident the Bureau had the resources to reverse the spell. He told me to take her to Dr. Kat, whom he was briefing on the other line. Dr. Kat. Short for Dr. Kathryn Ellis. She looked like everyone's favorite old maid aunt. A brilliant researcher who had rows of military ribbons from earlier in her life as a mage for the U.S. Marines. And by all accounts a wild woman in her early years. Now, it was "Be a dear" and "put that there, Dear." She always had a plate of homemade cookies in her office to offer visitors. Mind you, if you crossed her (which I never did but had seen some unfortunates do), she could come down on you like a load of steel bricks. But her everyday persona was everyone's favorite, kindly old Aunt Dr. Kat. Dr. Kat's offices were located in the same complex as mine, so all I had to do was drive back to West Virginia. After a few more exchanges, I ended the call and got into my car. I hadn't been driving more than ten minutes when my passenger in my pocket woke up. The road was empty as I pulled off to the shoulder and looked down. "Sleep well?" With a happily sleepy smile, she answered, "Very well. But I seemed to have misplaced my clothes," she added with a giggle. I patted my jacket pocket. "Right here. Want them?" "Eventually, but not any time soon. Help me out?" I helped her out of my pocket and into my palm, lifting her up to my face. She had her legs tucked beneath and behind her. She clasped her hands behind her head and arched her back, jutting her breasts toward me. I couldn't help but stare. She giggled. "See anything you like?" I didn't answer but pulled her up to my mouth, taking her beautiful breasts between my lips, gently sucking on them. She was a absolutely delicious. I could hear little moans as her arms grasped my face, pushing her chest forward. I moved her away just far enough to nudge her on her back and spread her legs. I let my tongue start exploring between her legs. Almost immediately her back was arching and she let out a long low moan before collapsing. She laid back on my palm and panted and giggled again. "I don't think I can take much more. But I'll die happy, at least." My finger was stroking her hair and then moved down to fondle her breasts. Her nipples were hard and I could just feel them underneath my fingertip. She laughed, "You really like my breasts, don't you?" I blushed but kept on caressing them. "Yes I do. Mind?" "No. Exhausted as I am, it still feels wonderful." She got a thoughtful look on her face. "It's odd, but it never felt this good when I was normal size. Do you think it's because maybe my nerve endings are super concentrated or something? It doesn't feel that...well, sensitive, anywhere else." I moved my finger tip down between her legs. "Not even here?" I chuckled. She laughed and pushed my finger away. "Please, I have to get a little break." "Well, we need to get you dressed, Amber. I have an associate of mine, Dr. Kathryn Ellis, who's going to reverse the spell." Amber nodded and almost reluctantly got dressed. As I lifted her into my shirt pocket (now back to its original shape), she asked. "By the way, I probably ought to know your name by now, all things considered," she added with a giggle. "Bishop. My name's Bishop." VI: I could tell Amber was nervous as she stood on Dr. Kat's desk, but Dr. Kat put her at ease almost instantly. It's really hard to be intimidated by someone who's serving up oatmeal raisin cookies. "Now if you'll excuse me, dear, I need to have a word with Agent Bishop in private." Amber just nodded as she happily chewed on a crumb from one of Dr. Kat's cookies. Dr. Kat led me into the hallway outside of her office. "Bishop, have you ever met this young woman before today?" I shook my head. "Are you sure, dear? Your Aunt Kat can keep a secret, you know." "Yes ma'am. I'm sure. Until today, I never met her before." Dr. Kat scratched her chin. "That's very odd. There's a very strong psychic cord connecting you two. And there's some very odd nuances that I just can't put my finger on. Well, never you mind, dear. Your Aunt Kat will take care of everything." She patted my cheek. "You just go sit in your office and make sure you relax. Nothing more strenuous than turning the page of a book." "Dr. Kat, don't you won't me to come help you with Amber?" She raised an eyebrow. "Amber, is it? Not Ms. Wades?" I turned beet red. "No, dear, there's too much psychic interaction between you two. I don't need the interference while I cast the counter spell. By the by, can you give me any hints on the spell caster? I don't recognize the style at all, and there aren't that many mages who can craft a spell of this caliber." "No, ma'am, no leads at all. The MCSI unit is going over the trailer with a fine tooth comb, before the Disinformation guys do their thing." "Very, very strange. Well, go find somewhere to sit down while I attend to your young lady friend." With that dismissal I returned to my office. I was reading a book on Descartian Magical Theorems when a strange thing happened. As I said earlier, one of the key factors of a mage is his ability to comprehend complex spells. For example, one of the signs that a mage is of a superior caliber is his ability to grasp the dual nature of matter and energy. I can understand the theory, but the innate ability to juxtapose their dual natures in my mind while spell crafting is beyond me. Or it used to be. For some reason, I had felt my reasoning to be especially clear for the last hour or so. And I felt maybe a tiny bit more powerful, like I had discovered a previously untapped mental reserve. I started reading Descartes Dual Nature Theorem, and thinking I should call my old professor/advisor, Dr. Putnam, when I felt something snap in my mind. Not painfully, but enough to get my attention, like being abruptly awaken during a very vivid dream. The minor euphoric high I had been riding was gone. My thinking was back to its old fuzzy self. But I still thought I could understand Descartes Dual Nature Theorem on a practical level. I would definitely give Dr. Putnam a call. There was a knock on the door and Dr. Kat stuck her head in the door. "Okay, dear? Anything amiss?" I assured her that I was fine but she insisted on peeling back my eyelids and staring down my throat. "Well, you seem okay, but let your Aunt Kat know if you have any side effects. I told your young lady friend the same thing." With that Amber walked into the office, fully restored to her normal size. I had been right about my guess from the picture. She stood five foot two in her bare feet. "Now I've given young Amber a plausible lie about where she's been that she can tell her roommates. And very strict instructions about being discreet on what we do here." She gave Amber a very stern look and Amber solemnly nodded. "Now I'll let Agent Bishop take you home, young lady." With that Dr. Kat left the room, leaving the two of us in awkward silence. "I want to thank you for rescuing me, Agent Bishop," Amber quietly said, looking down at her feet. "I hope you don't have a bad opinion of me from the, well, you know, stuff, we did. I'm not usually that way." "It was a unique position for both of us, Amber." She looked up at me and smiled bashfully. "I don't know what happened. When I was in Dr. Kat's lab with her assistants, they had to pick me up occasionally, but it was nothing like your touch. It was just, you know, like a doctor examining you. A little embarrassing, but nothing exciting, like your touch was." She blushed again and stared down at her feet. Trying to lighten the mood, I added, "Well, you don't look the worse for wear." She giggled again, and added, "I actually think I lost some weight and got a little firmer in some places. But I wouldn't suggest it as a weight loss plan to anyone." We both laughed, if a little awkwardly. The ride to her house was silent, both of us lost in our own thoughts. She did tentatively taken my hand and held it for the entire trip. As we got to her house, I started opening up the door to get out. She put her hand on my chest. "That's okay, I'll walk myself to the door. It's better that way." I knew there was a team observing the house and I hadn't gotten notified of any magic being directed toward the house, so I didn't object. She started to open the door and then turned in her seat and gave me a tight hug. "I have to confess to you, Bishop, that if I had been stuck at five inches, I wouldn't have minded it, if I had gotten to stay with you. I might have even preferred it to returning to normal." She gave me a quick peck on my lips and got out of the car, quickly running into the house. I thought about what she said all the way back to my office. VII: I sat in my office lost in my thoughts when I decided that it was time to call my old advisor, Dr. Putnam, on this matter. I called the Security Division to make sure he still had his green hexagon clearance and a secure line, then called him up. "Dr. Joseph Putnam speaking." "Dr. Putnam, this is Agent Bishop. I was your student at one time and was hoping you could help me out on a current case." "Ahhh, Hephaestus, my dear boy, it's been simply ages since you've called. Pity it took business to accomplish the task. How can I assist you?" Yes, Hephaestus is my given first name. Another reason why I was happy to take a code name from the bureau. You don't even want to know what my middle name is. Suffice to say my name made me the toughest kid in my neighborhood, since I was in the most fights. "I'm sorry that I haven't gotten back to you earlier, Dr. Putnam, but work has kept me busy." "Quite, quite. Duty first and all that. Well, tell me about your latest dust-up." I reviewed the latest case with all its details, making sure to use euphemisms when describing more intimate details. Dr. Putnam was English and expected euphemisms. I once heard him describe a marital infidelity by a colleague with a reference to Anna Karenina. He listened intently. There was a studied silence when I finished. "This is nasty business you've gotten yourself into, Hephaestus. I have a suspicion that this spell is a monochromatic one." That...was not pleasant news. Most magic is grey. That is to say, magic is like, say, dropping a penny. The magic itself is neutral. If you drop a penny into a wishing well where the proceeds go to a charity, the end result is good. Drop it from a ten story building on the head of a pedestrian, the end result is not so good. But in both cases, you dropped a penny. The penny itself is neutral. The same with magic. At least all the magic I can do. At the higher level, there are spells that are of a dual nature, depending on the caster. These are called monochromatic, being either "white" magic or "black" magic, depending on how it's cast. I know the theory of such spells, which include such things as summoning demons and transforming human beings. A spell that sacrificed a human being could grant its caster enormous power or save a village from destruction. It would be basically be the same spell, but nuances in the spell would divide it between "black" and "white" (an involuntary sacrificial victim vs. a voluntary one, for example). It may seem as if I'm arguing semantics, but there is a vital difference between neutral and monochromatic. The effects on the caster and his karma, both immediate and in the long term, are very real. Dr. Putnam theorized that the original crafter of the spell didn't care to "show his hand", as it were. So he used an agent, a fairly powerless one, who would be incapable of double crossing him. The fact that I acted so fast probably saved Amber's life. Whatever rewards super mage planned to reap, me interceding negated and turned them toward me. Because I acted with kindness toward Amber, and I was the one who removed the shielding keeping her captive, I seemed to have inadvertently activated the "white" aspects of the spell and suppressed the "black" ones. At this point Dr. Putnam went into euphemism overdrive. What I could deduce from the conversation that was embarrassing us both was that the connection that was established between Amber and me fed our own desires back and forth between us. Case in point: I've always been something of a "breast" man (like Jerry Seinfeld said, why would I be a leg man? I've got legs). Because that was my preference, Amber's sensitivity was enhanced in that area. And because she was enjoying it, her emotions made me more inclined to dwell in that area. A very enjoyable loop that I wouldn't mind exploring more if the opportunity presented itself again. Another side effect seemed to be enhancing my mental ability and psychic reserves. The last was temporary, the first seemed to be minor, but permanent, as my mastery of the Dual Nature Theorem seemed to indicated. Dr. Putnam agreed with me on this point. And it gave him some facts to start speculating on what benefits the super mage would have gained if he had succeeded. He promised to get back to me as soon as he did some more research. As soon as I got off the phone, my boss called. "We got another disappearance that looks identical to the first, Bishop. I need you to move on it now." VIII: When my boss said fast, he meant fast. I was getting jurisdiction to jurisdiction escort all the way to a tony section of Richmond, Virginia. As I pulled up, the head of the local FBI office walked up to me as I got out of the car. "So you must be Bishop. Special Agent in Charge Walker. You must rate. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was to assist you in anyway I can, but otherwise stay out of your way and don't ask questions. So here's the situation. Part of the house is missing. No explosions, no bright lights, no anything. Just part of the house goes missing. Nobody notices it until the local landscaping company comes in. And we have a missing person along with the missing portion of the house. A Ms. Tiffany Jennifer Lee; father's a fairly successful lawyer and the mother's an owner of a successful catering company. Both with connections in the local and national political arena, just so you'll know where the pressure to get this solved fastest is coming from. Here's a picture of Tiffany." I caught myself from making an audible gasp. Tiffany wasn't an exact duplicate of Amber, but the two could have been sisters. One more piece in the puzzle, but I still didn't know what the final picture was. "OK, Agent Walker, I'm going to need a hairbrush, toothbrush, anything with DNA on it. And clear the scene of your people, I want to walk around it alone." I did a quick magical once over and my fears were confirmed. The same spell that kidnapped Amber was used to kidnap this Tiffany girl. But now that I knew what I was working with, I wouldn't need to go back to the office to hunt her down. If she was within range, I should be able to track her down from here. Agent Walker brought back a styling brush and I nodded my head in thanks. Climbing back into my car, I made a call, telling my boss it would be best that I wasn't escorted or tailed. Bishop Ch. 01 Driving a short distance away, I pulled over to the side of the road and set up my mobile divination spell, hoping it would work. IX: The divination looked like it was working. And hooking it up to my GPS map, I found myself again on a dirt and gravel road in the middle of nowhere, but this time in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia. After a few hours driving, I found myself approaching a one room shack that was old back during the Depression. I parked the car out of sight, and using the surrounding trees for cover, snuck in close and peeked into a window that was more dust than glass. Same scenario as last time: one shrunken girl in an aquarium (this time Tiffany), guarded by one backwoods hedge warlock who looked as if the concept of dental hygiene was not only foreign to him, it was a completely alien concept. This one kept on tapping on the aquarium and leering at the girl inside, who was cowering on what looked like a shrunken couch in a tiny, partial living room. The local yokel mage kept on trying to reach into the aquarium but had his hand electrified for the effort. Slow learner, though, because he kept on trying. Same M.O. as before, I thought to myself. Must be a dupe used by whoever is casting these spells. Which means I lucked out again and got here before the real mastermind could. Which meant I need to act now. Sneaking around to the front door, I kicked it in while yelling, "F.B.I., Freeze!" The mage spun around and tossed a ball of something that looked definitely unappetizing at me. But my reflexes were still a little sped up after my time with Amber, and the adrenaline flowing through my veins didn't hurt either. I cast a flexi shield spell, which sent the ball flying right back at our hedge wizard. When it hit him, it spread over him and he began to melt. With a loud shriek he disappeared quickly, but probably not quickly enough for either of us. I "looked" at the containment field on top of the aquarium, and it was the same as before. Whoever made it probably didn't go to too much trouble about making any minor alterations because this spell was way past the goons he had working for him. Young Tiffany was cowering on the couch. She was wearing a pair of silk pajamas, the bottoms being shorts and showing her legs off to excellent advantage. As I had seen in the picture earlier, her and Amber weren't identical, but they could have been sisters. I also noticed by her hurried breathing that Tiffany shared Amber's delectable chest measurements as well. "Tiffany, you can calm down now. I'm with the FBI and I'm here to help you." I reached down into the tank, putting my hand palm up next to her. "Right now, we both need to get out of here so I can take you somewhere where we can restore you." I'll say this for both girls. It can't be easy to have the existence of magic proven to you by being shrunk down and teleported to hillbilly hell. But both were able to keep at least some semblance of their wits about them. Tiffany climbed into my hand and I lifted her gently out of the tank to eye level. As she sat in my hand, tucking her legs underneath her, I gently stroked her hair, which visibly calmed her. Then a thought hit me. "Tiffany, I'll let you make this decision. I can take you back to the labs of the government agency I work for. But my family has a cabin not too far from here that will work just as well, and I think I can get a few more answers as well. Do you mind if I take you back there?" Tiffany's eyes were closed, her back arched as my finger made its way down her back and gently massaged her. She shook her head no. "Fine, let me put you in my pocket and we'll head there now." She seemed a little disappointed that I was stopping the massage, but settled down into my pocket nicely. I could feel a bit of the psychic connection being established between the two of us, the same as had been established between Amber and me. To be honest, Tiffany was just as attractive as Amber, and I wanted to explore the more enjoyable aspects of that connection. I realized that must have been one of the aspects of the spell. But I also wanted to explore the power aspects more. I had a feeling that whoever I was facing, I was going to need all the juice I could get. Climbing back into my vehicle, I headed for my ancestral cabin. (To be continued)