A Case of Breaking and Entering: Open Doors

“Detective.” Officer Mckinley of the Magical Enforcement Unit said, trying to get the crouching man’s attention.

The man pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and stood. “Officer.” he said, turning to face him. Taking a metal case from the inner pocket of his coat and taking out a hand rolled cigarette, fitting it into a finely crafted wooden holder. Snapping his fingers of the free hand. Producing a small flame on his pointer finger, and lighting the cigarette.

As the man took a long drag and blew a thin stream of smoke the Officer looked at where the man was just crouching. “Have you found anything?” Officer Mckinley asked.

“Define anything.” Detective Dornar said, flicking off the ash.

Officer Mckinley groaned. “You know what I mean, don't play word games.”

Detective Dornar shrugged. “It isn’t word games, if you want to know what I found you have to be specific.”

Officer Mckinley threw up his hands, “Okay specifically, did you find any clues as to how those kids got into the tower unhindered.”

Detective Dornar took a drag as he thought about how to word his findings. “It is my belief their infiltration is something of a smoke screen.” he said, taking a step forward. “The problem with a wizard’s tower is. They hide a lot of secrets, keeping things hidden, both literal and physical. It's almost impossible to know what was in the tower so without the wizard himself it presents a difficult task to inventory everything.” he spoke looking to the officer to see if he was following.”

“Understand you so far. But that doesn’t explain how a bunch of amateurs stumbled in, unintentionally.”

“I’ll get there.” Detective Dornar said, “The other problem with Wizard Towers is they exist in subspace.” he went on. “It's not impossible for someone using unorthodox methods of traversing those spaces that you would find yourself at the tower's location in that subspace. What is rare is being able to permeate that space and enter the tower uninvited or without the key.” Detective Dornar was mostly speaking his thoughts aloud at this point, as he pulled the small remaining part of the cigarette from its holder and ground it into the dirt thoroughly making sure any embers were snuffed. “Transversal like that is the work of an arch-mage, or someone with a lot of connections, which doesn’t narrow the list, but it does take those students off. Their ‘leader’ a kid by the name of Lakey seemed to be the brains of the group or at least the one who had this brilliant idea of a midnight drug walk. But they are kids with barely the power of half an archmage between them so I can’t say I believe they could do that.” he kept his roll going even though he saw Officer Mckinley was losing the trail. “I think someone left the door open.” he said.

“Door…open?” Officer Mckinley asked. “The tower didn’t have any doors.”

“It's a figure of speech, Officer Mckinley keep up.”

“Okay then, explain it like I don’t follow.” Officer Mckinley said.

Detective Dornar pushed his glasses up his nose again, and rolled his eyes. “Structures in Subspace rarely have doors to enter.” he saw Officer Mckinley nod, “But you still need a way in.” another nod. “So wizards create little doors in that subspace to allow them in and out. If someone left it cracked, either because they damaged it going in or did it so they could return later is not the question for now, it's how they did it.”

Officer Mckinley looked puzzled again. “You said that already, someone with a lot of magic power stepped in then out again.”

Detective Dornar pinched the bridge of his nose. “No. How they managed to prop the door open.” he said. “I’ve only seen one other person do anything remotely close, and even that doesn’t leave the doors wide open.”

“Could that be your guy, could that person be the thief?” Officer Mckinley asked.

Detective Dornar shook his head, “Not likely he isn’t a thief. Scratch that never proved himself to be a thief.” he then shrugged. “He’s tripped a lot of alarms, and made a nuisance of himself but never more than opening a door.” Detective Dornar shrugged again, “Not sure who he is or what kind of wizard he is to do what he does. Strangest bit is I couldn’t sense ‘The Weave’ on him. Horo…something.”

Officer Mckinley jotted the name down. “Suspect?” he questioned hoping for some lead after all this talking.

“Unlikely. Not his M.O. and he’s been quiet for a year or two,” he added.

Officer Mckinley sighed and scribbled the name out. “Anyone else?”

“Only one other I know can do this kind of working of magic. And he’s a bit of an idiot, and he’s on a short leash with the higher ups.” he said.

Officer Mckinley looked more confused, “You suspect someone from the agency?”

“Not quite.” he said, “I don’t think he’d have broken in on purpose. He’s a what do you call it a bit of an idiot savant.”

“How so?” Officer Mckinley asked.

“Tons of power, he can work magics I’ve only seen the strongest wizards pull off. But the man can’t read spell books to save his life, I’ve heard he never gets teleportation spells quite right and lucks his way into not dying on a nearly daily basis. If not for Aspen he’d probably have died years ago.”

“And the man’s name?” Officer Mckinley asked.

“Parvil Killian.” Detective Dornar said, “If we find him it might be prudent to ask a question or two but he’s more likely to solve a crime like this than commit it.”

“Is he a detective like you?” Officer Mckinley asked.

“No, not like me. He doesn’t really follow the rules.” Detective Dornar said, “It's like the mercenary equivalent of my job. A hired sword or brain.”

Officer Mckinley sensed a bit of hostile feelings “Do you not like that?”

“Nothing I can do about it.” Detective Dornar said, “My boss likes him and hires him, so my feelings are moot.”

A man came over and whispered something in Officer Mckinley’s ear.

“My men have closed off the area, nobody should be able to get in now. And if they manage we’ll get an imprint of their magic aura.” Officer Mckinley told Detective Dornar.

Detective Dornar nodded. “Have some men stationed in the area, I’ll be back a short time after sunrise to look for traces of the culprit in the daylight.” he said as he walked away and lit up another cigarette.