King of Kings

“Please, Ms. Vincent, you’ve gotta find our little boy!”

That was all Ashwyn had needed to hear before deciding to take the case. When it came to missing children, she worked pro bono – she knew exactly how it felt when a family got broken up, and even if she couldn’t mend the rift in her own home, she could at least help ensure other families were able to stay together.

The kid’s name was Principality Palay. His parents had, as far as Ashwyn could figure, wanted to name him something grand and regal, and got part of the way there before veering off-track. The kid himself went by Tee. According to the info Ashwyn got out of his mom and dad, Tee went missing two days prior, and the city guard was having no luck in tracking him down. “He was just drawing with some chalk on the cobblestones out front,” his mom tearfully told Ashwyn. “Then I heard a loud crash, and when I went to go check on him, he was… he was gone…”

That gave Ashwyn somewhere to start. The parents lived on Two Edge Way, one of the poorer areas in Port Yarcia. The inhabitants were almost all the sort of people who had spent their lives being beaten down by, well, everything, and they wanted to just keep their heads down and get on with their business. This indirectly meant that nobody much wanted to talk to her when Ashwyn began canvassing the area.

Ashwyn completed her lap of the street and sat on the stoop outside the Palay home. She closed her eyes and sorted through the facts of the case that she had so far. This did not take long. When she opened them again, her eyes fell on the chalk drawing that Tee had left behind, almost hidden around the side of the stoop.

It had been a dry summer. The rain hadn’t come for quite some time, and although Ashwyn had spent every one of those days cursing the heat, today she found herself thankful for the drought. After all, she thought, if it had rained, Tee’s message would have been washed away.

The drawing had two components. The first was a simple drawing of some animal, the details of which Ashwyn couldn’t immediately make out aside from it having four legs. The second was… Ashwyn narrowed her eyes. A lopsided, half-erased magic circle.

Octavius Esry, famous researcher of old, wrote a little about magic circles in one of many treatises he published about magic. “They’re not as common as they used to be,” Esry said, “but you still see them from time to time, especially when someone has big spells they need to cast. The idea is that magic circles can act as a crutch for someone not yet strong enough to cast a specific spell, redirecting and channeling energy in such a way that it amplifies a mage’s power. They can be dangerous, though, as can anything that involves surpluses of magic, and it’s generally recommended that the amateur stay away from them.”

Ashwyn stormed back into the Palay residence. “Which one of you was teaching your kid magic?” she asked, shooting a Look at both parents.

“M-me,” the father said, his voice faltering. “Is that b-bad…?”

“Ordinarily? No,” Ashwyn said. “I started much younger than him. But it’s the sort of thing I need to know if you expect me to find Tee! Is there anything else you think you ought to mention?!”

“Ah… our pet bugrit King died a couple’a days before Tee disappeared,” the mother said. “Tee was so upset… He loved King so much. He even had a little stuffed bugrit that he kept around with him that he called King Two.”

Ashwyn started to say something about how bugrits, with their volatile tempers and voracious appetites, weren’t fit for kids, but she stopped herself. She’d wanted one when she was young too, after all. They were just so fluffy. “Well, that’s something,” she said instead. “I’ll see what I can do with that.”

As Ashwyn left the house, the wheels in her head began to turn. Tee drew a magic circle before he disappeared. That could mean that he cast a spell way above his pay grade, and that contributed somehow. A kid casting magic in the street must have drawn some attention, though. I don’t buy that nobody here saw anything. But everyone here hates the guards and they hate investigators. Not that I can blame them. Hm.

A bell dinged in front of her, and Ashwyn narrowly got out of the way as a kid rolled past her in a wagon. He looked to be somewhere around the 10-year-old range, Ashwyn figured, just like Tee.

Wait.

“Hey kid, hold on there,” Ashwyn said, grabbing the handle before he got too far away. “Got a question for you.”

The kid eyed her in the vaguely suspicious way that she had come to recognize from this street. “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”

“There’s some gold in it for you,” Ashwyn said quickly before the kid could leave. She stuck her hand in her jacket pocket and produced a handful of slightly grimy gold-colored coins.

The kid stared at the gold, his eyes wide. Ashwyn knew that look very well. “Okay,” he said, relenting. “What is it?”

“This kid, Tee Palay. Can you tell me anything about where he might be? Or at least what happened to him?”

“Dunno what happened,” the kid said after a moment. “But he might be in his hideaway.”

“His… hideaway? Surely his parents would have looked there first,” Ashwyn said, half to herself.

“Naw, his parents didn’t know. It was his secret. Him and King both. Well, kind of a secret. We all knew about it, but none of us wanted to go bothering him there. King gets scary sometimes.”

“Hm.” Ashwyn nodded thoughtfully, logging in the information away. “Where is this hideaway?”

The kid’s eyes glanced noticeably back to the coins in her hand.

“Ugh, fine, fine.” Ashwyn added another coin to the group.

“Okay, lady. Follow me.”

***

The hideaway was more accurately a glade – or maybe a clearing – in the woods around the outskirts of town. Ashwyn’s guide left her before she got too close, but he had pointed her in the right direction, and that was all she needed. She plunged through the flora and made her way towards a dell, dappled with sun and a rainbow of flowers.

A little ways past her, leaning against a fallen log, was a child. He looked to be about the same age as the kid in the wagon, and as Ashwyn approached, he looked up.

“Who’re you?” he asked in a quiet, timorous voice.

“My name’s Ashwyn, and I’m here to bring you home,” Ashwyn said, kneeling down in front of him.

Tee’s eyes widened. “B-but…”

“But what?”

“But what about the monster?”

“The…” Ashwyn didn’t have time to say any more before an enormous footfall in the distance shook the ground beneath her. She turned just in time to see it burst from the woods.

‘It’ could have been mistaken for a bugrit when viewed from a distance – the same tawny fur, the long ears, the second maw that could open on its stomach. Up close, though, you’d be forced to realize that it was, in fact, larger than a person, and suddenly everything that had been cute about the bugrit became terrifying. Ashwyn looked up at the monster bugrit and realized that its mouth was bigger than she was.

“Run, Tee!” Ashwyn yelled as she backed up.

“Nuh-uh! Every time I d-do it just chases me down and brings me back here!”

“Wait.” Ashwyn glanced back towards him. “It’s trying to keep you here?” With that knowledge burning a hole in her mind, she looked more closely at the beast from where she stood. Once she knew what she was looking for, it was obvious: a certain thickness around the arms, a stumpiness in the legs, and even… yes, a seam running down one side. Ashwyn tried to think. She was about sixty percent sure she was right. The odds were technically in her favor on that one, but it was close. If I’m wrong, she thought, I might not be alive to worry about it much longer.

“Tee. Your bugrit King. Did you have any games you’d play with him?”

“I, um, we played fetch. I’d throw a thing and King would go and eat it.”

“Can you play fetch now?” Ashwyn hissed as the beast bore down on them.

“O-okay…” Tee scrabbled around for a stick on the ground near him, and he stood up. With the practiced throw of someone who had done it countless times, the stick soared in a neat arc back into the woods. The bugrit’s eyes followed it, and it bounded away after it. A few moments later, the bugrit came back, hopping from foot to foot.

“It liked it. Keep it up,” said Ashwyn.

Tee nodded and threw another stick. The back-and-forth kept up for a little while before the beast approached Tee and curled up on the ground; it was the sort of action that would have looked sweet on a normal-sized bugrit. Tee rubbed its side, and it rumbled happily. Then, its eyes turned glassy, and with a quiet sigh, it began returning to normal size. When it was all said and done, the only thing left was a stuffed bugrit, one that Tee eagerly grabbed and hugged.

“Let’s get you home, kid,” Ashwyn said. She held out her hand. Tee took it, and together they went back into the city.

***

“…So, two things. First, you need to make sure you teach Tee about using magic responsibly. This all happened because Tee made a magic circle to bring King back to life, and ended up binding your pet’s soul to his stuffed toy. Then it got all ‘lost-soul goals-left-unfilled angry-ghost’ on you. It’s a lucky thing Tee here knew how to calm it down.” Ashwyn crossed her arms and aimed her best glare at Mr. and Mrs. Palay. The effect was partially undercut due to her being closer in size to Tee than to his parents.

“And, ah, the second thing,” the mom said. “What’s that?”

“Make Tee a really good dinner tonight. Make sure he knows how much you love him. He just lost his pet twice. He’s going to need it.”