[Information, Loyal]

  We’d almost finished our breakfast before Doug spoke again, he knew when to cut his loses, and that ‘compliment’ to Jaq was a clear loss.

  “Rose, this woman Aya Asada doesn’t exist. She has no online presence whatsoever. As soon as she arrived in Tregaron, the two video’s that she’d been in were deleted as were the youtube channels that’d hosted them. She’s not in any databases in Interpol, FBI, British, Japanese, Russian or Chinese Intelligence. She’s either squeaky clean, but no social media presence. It must be a fake personna, I’m running her picture from the youtube video through facial recognition software, but it could take days or weeks to find any matches if any even exist.”

  “Thank you Doug, now please apologize to Jaq.”

  “Jaq, I’m sorry I said you have a nice figure. You don’t need validation from me. How was that Rose?”

  “Very good Doug, I’m taking you to Wales for a couple days, let’s go see if Daisy wants to come.”

  “You're bringing a ghost to my house Rose?”

  “Well only if I have your permission. Doug and Daisy are dating.”

  “Your mirror and your ghost are dating?”

  “Well they're not mine, I don’t own them, we just all live together.”

  “And I am not a mirror, I’m Zenodotus of Ephesus the Librarian of Alexendra, but you can call me Doug.”

  “Sorry Doug, I had no idea. Rose get the ghost and lets go. I don't want a murderer left around my grandmother, no matter how many times I wanted to kill her myself. We just started getting along.”

  “Come on everyone, we can just jump from the library.”

  We headed back into the library, I asked Daisy if she wanted to take a trip.

  Doug replied, “Yes, Rose she’d like to go. Jaq, she’d like to know if you have any ghosts?”

  “None that I know of Daisy, I used to be a rationalist, materialist, for all I know the estate is packed with them.”

  “Daisy said thank you she hopes it is.”

  We jumped back to the maze entrance and Lu ran in to see if Aya was trapped by the suitcase. She wasn’t so we continued into the house to begin the search. Jaq went to inform Collins that Aya might be up to no good, and very likely murdered Farthing.

  Collins and the footman would begin a search of the house. Aya had not had breakfast in the dining room and she had not been seen since the dinner party broke up and everyone left for their rooms the previous night.

  With all the staff in on the search, even with the huge size of the mansion, they’d find her. I did a locate spell and she wasn’t anywhere that I could locate her in.

  “Draco, I did a locate spell, and she’s nowhere. Is that because Aya Asada is a fake name?”

  “Probably Rose, you need to know the person's real name for a locate spell to work. I did a locate spell as soon as we jumped back and had the same result. Too bad neither one of us thought to do one before we went home. Then at least we could narrow down the timeline.”

  “Would a locate spell work on you if you were invisible?”

  “No it shouldn’t, give it a try.”

  Draco blinked out of existence. I cast the locate spell and yes it worked.

  “Draco, locate did work, but I still can’t see you, but I can tell that you are in the mansion. The same thing happened when Opal got sucked into a drawing, Sparky and I kept doing locate spells and the result was the bookstore, because the drawing was located in the store.”

  “I thought my invisibility spell negated locate, I’ll have to rework the spell, Sparky probably has some idea how I could negate it.”

  Jaq went up on the tower roof with the spyglass to see if Aya was anywhere in sight. Soon the staff began to trickle back reporting that their section of the house was searched and clear. Finally Jaq came down from the roof with the final negative result.

  Lu was conducting her own search of the house, using her own special ability. She came back and asked Draco to verify her suspicions. Which he did. After the police had left and everyone departed for bed, Aya hadn’t gone back to her room, she'd gone down the corridor to the eastern tower, then she just disappeared. Last night Aya entered the eastern tower.

  “I knew it was weird that a person known for believing in alternate reality, other worlds, should have shown more interest in actually seeing the place that is either an alternate reality or other worlds. For all I know, she’s been going in and out of the tower before I even arrived here at Tregaron. Then when I did arrive I told her everything I knew about the place.” Jaq said.

  Draco replied, “Don’t worry Jaq, if she’s evil and she tries to leave the first floor, the dragon door knocker will burn her to ash when it reads her soul.”

  “I told her all about that too. I thought she was helping me, I thought she was a nice person.”

  “It’s better to be betrayed than to never trust anyone, look at how many great friends and allies you’ve made since arriving here, Jaq. Lu and I will help, we’ll jump into the tower with Draco, do a locate spell and find her. If she’s not already a pile of ash.” I declared.

  Frida said, “Not without Jaq, Nyx and I.”

  Everyone went back to their rooms for a nap. When I finally managed to fall asleep it was time to get up and get dressed for dinner. Dinner was a subdued affair compared to last night. Jaq shared the theory that Aya was the killer with her grandmother, Maz and Groucho, also telling them that she thinks that Aya escaped into the tower last night.

  “Harry, will you guard the corridor with Tigran? When we enter the tower, I don’t want her sneaking out and getting away. You can see Draco even when he is invisible, so I don’t think she’ll be able to get past you. As long as you and your boyfriend pay attention.”

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  “Got it Jaq, don’t worry.”

  Maz asked, “What can I do Jaq?”

  “You didn’t destroy that ‘big ear’ yet did you?”

  “No not yet. Good it may come in handy when we catch her.”

  We all waited for the portal to open in the empty room closest to where the portal opens up. Draco, Groucho, Jaq, Frida, Nyx, Lu, and I. I was worried what Nyx might do to Aya, if it looked like Jaq or Frida was in danger due to some action Aya attempted.

  “Nyx, can I talk to you in the hallway for a minute.”

  She looked surprised but followed me out.

  “Nyx, I’m worried you might do something violent to Aya, please don’t for your sake. Just leave her to me, I promise that she’ll be punished, that you’ll even have a say in it. If you do something bad in front of Frida or Jaq, they might become frightened of you and nobody wants that right.”

  “Aya already hurt Jaq, she betrayed her. She murdered someone on Jaq’s property.”

  “Yes she did betray Jaq, and she probably did murder Farthing but she deserves justice not revenge. Just promise me that you will use the minimum amount of force to be captured. You’ll be a hero to Jaq and Frida if you do that, but if you start flaying her alive, you won’t be a hero, then you’d be a monster.”

  “I understand Rose, thank you, I’ll use minimum force, I have a locate spell and I can jump too. When I catch her, I’ll bring her to Jaq, alive. Unless Jaq wants her dead.”

  “I most assuredly do not want her dead Nyx.”

  “Alright then I’ll bring her to you alive and well.”

  “Good because I want to know why she did what she did, not just punish her. Maybe she’s part of some larger plot we need to know about. Unless you can bring people back to life, then please don’t ever kill anyone. Tolkien a real great man said

  Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

  Capital punishment is always wrong, Nyx. Rose and I disagree a lot, but for sure we agree about this.”

  Just then Jaq heard the song and yelled to our friends that we’re ready to jump into the tower. We all walked into the tower, led by Jaq and Nyx. Two minutes later it was all over.

  Before I could even finish the locate spell, I heard a pop and saw Nyx disappear. Just as I feared. But then I heard another pop and a very sunburned Aya, held off the ground by Nyx.

  We turned around and marched back into Tregaron. We all went back into the room we’d only vacated moments before. Jaq went to talk to Harry and the footmen who’d been guarding the corridor.

  One of the footmen was back with a tray containing a pitcher of water and some glasses. Jaq, poured a glass and placed it before Aya. Who drank it so fast she started to choke. Jaq gave her another second.

  “Aya, why did you kill Farthing?”

  Nothing no reply.

  “Why did you con your way into Tregaron?”

  Harry came in with the bullhorn. I don’t think shouting at her is going to work.

  “Why did you con your way into Tregaron?”

  “Because my government heard rumors about strange occurrences and we are hoping to find weapons that we can use against the west.”

  Aya, eyes went wide when she heard the words pour out of the not a bullhorn.

  Which government do you work for?

  “North Korea”

  “Have you reported back what you have discovered so far?”

  She answers, “Yes, they know…”

  “No, it would be too easy to get caught trying to communicate, I was to bring the info back in person.”

  “Why did you kill Farthing?”

  “He was blackmailing me.”

  “What did he have on you?”

  “He had pictures of me in Holland’s office going through all his file, then pictures of me in Holland's bedroom going through drawers. He said he’d get me kicked out of the mansion. Then last night on his way out he texted me if I didn’t bring him five thousand in cash, he’d email you the photos. I had no money. So I texted him back and agreed to meet him. I snuck up behind him and stabbed him in the back then I took his phone and suitcase which I placed in the maze in case the police wanted to search my room.”

  She spoke for real. “Now you know everything and you are going to help me get out of this country and get home. If you don’t I’ll tell the police that you have a talking monkey, a demon and dragon living on your property and a dangerous magical tower that appears at night. At first no one will believe me, but eventually someone will and they’ll come looking and see the tower appear in the middle of the night. Your life as you know it will be over. Help me escape and I’ll only tell my government.”

  Nyx said, ”Jaq, let me bring her to Literal Hell.”

  I said, “Jaq could I see you in the hall for just one second.”

  She followed me out.

  “Jaq I have a place where we could stash her and also take away her memories of ever being a spy or being at Tregaron or we could take away select memories of Tregaron and the fact that she is a spy, turn her and the suitcase and phone over to the police. They’d see that she was being blackmailed so she had a motive to kill Farthing. The only problem is what is she being blackmailed over?”

  “How about the fact that she’s a fake? She talks a good game but she’s not a guru and duped my grandfather into being invited to Tregaron.”

  So that’s what we did.