The dimly lit building felt suffocating for some reason. The sun was far from setting, but all the blinds were pulled down as always. Pietro didn't even look up from his work as Lola entered his office.

  She felt more uncomfortable around Pietro than ever. If what Al had said was true, then he would've had been the one that inflicted those horrible burns had they not been self inflicted.

  Al had been just as manipulative as his father could be, but unlike Pietro there seemed to be something good dwelling within him. She knew he was most likely up to something questionable, yet it surely wasn't as bad as the warlock running amok.

  She would keep Al's secret for as long as she found it to be acceptable. When the time came that he stepped out of line she was determined to be the one that put him in custody. If he was acting out with his newfound power then he had to be rehabilitated, because a harsher punishment would be far too cruel in her mind.

  "Are you going gawk at me all day or do you have something to say, Lola?"

  "Wasn't there a hit on the Winters girl today?"

  Pietro sighed audibly as he looked through the papers before him. Winters was just a teenager and overseer had all but given the go ahead for the Autumn clan to have her assassinated. Under the terms of war between clans it had been legal, but it just felt so utterly wrong in her mind that they allowed things like that to take place.

  "The assassin cancelled the contract he had with the clan, and I can only assume it was because his honor had demanded it," Pietro muttered.

  "Is there even such a thing as an honorable assassin?"

  "The immortals may take up work as killers for hire, but they still stick to their nauseating code."

  So the Autumns had sent an immortal. They were one of the most terrifying sects of mages from the Asian continent. Their brutality was well known among those that had heard of them. Almost paradoxically though they stuck to their code of ethics no matter how well you paid them. If they considered themselves defeated they would cancel the contract without a second thought and book the nearest flight back to Asia in a heartbeat.

  "How did the girl manage to defeat an immortal?" Lola exclaimed.

  "She didn't."

  Pietro quickly stacked the papers before him in a neat pile and finally looked up from his work to meet Lola's eyes. Unlike Al, Pietro's eyes never displayed any emotion whatsoever. Sometimes she doubted the former warlock had any real feelings at all within his soul. How he had managed to find a loving wife was beyond her.

  "It seems Jane has managed to find a talented combat mage to fight in her stead, but sadly we have no way of knowing who it could be."

  "Can't we check the footage from before they boarded the train?"

  "Standard protocol had us wipe all camera footage around the hour it happened, and the traces on the train had already faded by the time we rerouted it to the workshop for repairs."

  Lola gritted her teeth in frustration. There must have been something they had missed. The remnant magic may have faded and the footage was wiped, but maybe there was some other way they could identify the unknown magician?

  "Perhaps we can use the physical evidence to figure out what magic was used on the train?"

  "I've already looked it over, Lola, and it looks eerily similar to the work of the warlock."

  "Won't that mean we have grounds for taking Jane into custody then!"

  Pietro raised his hand to silence her outburst. Then gently massaged his temples before speaking up once more.

  "If the warlock is part of the conflict between the clans, then it's out of our hands unless the warlock does something that breaks the rules of engagement."

  "It's a traumatized girl with a serial killer by her side fighting a war against an entire clan and you find all of this to be acceptable somehow!?"

  "I do not, in fact I am disgusted by the fact we will have to end the investigation if it turns out the warlock is fighting on Jane's behalf."

  He slid one of the papers on his desk over to Lola before leaning back in his chair and lighting a cigarette. Even his act of being detached from it all made her skin crawl.

  "What is this?" she said as she studied the text before her.

  "A list of victims, all but one have had familial ties with the Autumn clan."

  He breathed out a sickening cloud of smoke before moving the cigarette back to his lip with a lazy sigh.

  "The first looks like a crime of passion in my eyes, but the rest seem to have been motivated by the ongoing conflict."

  "Oh, and one more thing, Lola."

  All of a sudden the darkness in the office grew heavy. The shadows drew closer, threatening to suck the life out Lola's body where she stood. The only visible sign of Pietro within the umbra was the lit cigarette hanging from his lip.

  "You're keeping something from us Lola..."

  His voice came out like a serpentine hiss as it echoed out from the shadows. A long tendril of darkness ending in spindly black fingers erupted from her own shadow and began closing around her throat.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "We did not expect such insubordination from a promising overseer investigator like you," he hissed.

  Pietro's magic seeped into her core and blended together with the dread suffusing her very being in that moment. It was the magic of a powerful warlock. Something far more insidious than simple power over shadows.

  "You went behind our back and attempted to interrogate our son did you not?"

  He was far too powerful. The vile nature of his soul perfectly reflected the cold man before her. A rare example of a mage where the soul and the self had almost no distinction. Something approaching the perfect unity of a true savant that most mages could only achieve in moments of great desperation.

  "Do you feel our darkness caressing your heart, worm?"

  There was an unbearable weight on the organ beating within her chest. Pietro could kill her without a second thought and there would be no punishment for him if he did. His authority was near absolute within their branch and high command would mark her as an acceptable loss if he ended her then and there.

  "Your son has emerged!" she cried out weakly.

  He released her heart, but the shadowy limb still held its grip on her throat. He had given her a stay of execution and she would have to make a good argument for herself if she valued her life.

  "He said it happened over a week ago and it seemed he still struggles to fully control his power."

  "He displayed an act of unconscious magic before our very eyes almost a month ago, so your story may well be true."

  A month ago? People on the verge of emerging often lashed out unconsciously when their emotions ran high, but by the time they caused overt magical phenomena it meant they were either about to fully cross the threshold or take a step back and remain ordinaire for a bit longer. Had he been emerged for way longer than he had claimed?

  "His power, Lola! What magic did you see within him with that astute sense of yours!"

  "I couldn't really tell, but it was cold and hollow I think?" she stuttered.

  "Maybe ice or something mixed up with darkness then? It would've been preferable for us had he remained ordinaire for the rest of his life, but this might be acceptable."

  People usually only displayed the ability to use one type of magic when they emerged. It was almost always tied to who they were as a person, and was shaped by their experiences in life before their emergence. Mages could always learn other kinds of magic with time, but they rarely wielded them as effectively as the magic that had grown within them throughout their life.

  "You should be happy, Lola, it means we won't have to put him down ourself if you're right."

  What sort of magic had he feared his son would develop? Had he traumatized Al to make sure he wouldn't develop some magic that had been growing within him if he ever emerged? The fact the abuse hadn't caused him to develop some kind of fire magic showed that the trauma he had inflicted on Al had gone far deeper than the skin. It had most likely changed Al's nature altogether.

  She couldn't help but sympathize with Al. The boy was trapped with a monster for a father that only seemed to be concerned with whatever inscrutable motivations swirled in his head. This was a grave betrayal on her part. While she hadn't fully believed all the things Al had said she had still broken the promise she made to him. It made her so angry with herself, yet she couldn't do anything about it now. All she could do now was try to make it right in the future.

  "This will be satisfactory for now, but don't think to ever cross us again!"

  The darkness around her retreated all at once. The room had returned to being no more than a dimly lit office as Pietro withdrew his magic. Pietro put out the cigarette in the ashtray on his desk and folded his hands before him.

  "I'm happy you chose to reveal this to me of your own free will, Lola."

  "Now, I would like you to go visit that Winters girl and see if she is working with the warlock," he said in his regular monotone.

  It was as if a switch had been flipped. One moment he had been close to killing her and the next he spoke almost casually. Maybe warlocks couldn't be rehabilitated, only directed in a more constructive direction. In her mind Pietro was far from rehabilitated despite what those in command had said.

  "I thought we weren't supposed to get involved," she said under her breath.

  "If you can confirm that the warlock is working with Winters, then we'll have to close this investigation immediately."

  "But didn't you say?"

  "We would be awful investigators if we closed an investigation because of simple guesswork now wouldn't we?"

  As she stepped out of the office she breathed out a slow sigh of relief. All she had to do was take a train and question Jane to confirm if the warlock was working with her or not.

  The journey itself wasn't much to speak of and passed her by quietly. By the time she reached the mansion her nerves were starting to act up. While Jane would be well aware of how one should act around an overseer agent, there was always a chance the mage working with Jane might think she was a threat and decide to sling magic first and ask questions later.

  She slowly knocked on the large double doors of the mansion before adjusting her tie. Someone opened the door and stepped outside to meet her only moments after she had knocked.

  Jane was quite short, with a slight frame, long flowing platinum blonde hair, and she had piercing crystal blue eyes that seemed as if they could peer right through her.

  "An overseer huh? I suppose I should've expected as much."

  Her voice was gentle and silky smooth when she spoke. It was so soft it almost made Lola pause and wonder if maybe she had knocked on the wrong door.

  "Why don't you step inside and seat yourself in the hall."

  Jane held her hand outstretched in the direction of the hall as she invited Lola to step inside. She nodded to Jane once and then entered the house.

  She saw two couches and a large armchair in the center of the hall and began moving closer. The tall figure lazily resting in one of the couches turned to look towards Jane's direction as Lola approached.

  "I hope I won't have to answer a bunch of idiotic questions you know? My body still feels like shit."

  The voice made Lola hesitate for a moment. There had been some strain behind the words, but the manner of speaking seemed so familiar. Her eyes went wide as his face came into view.

  "Al?!"

  Al sat up and looked at her with cold empty eyes that so closely resembled his father's. His posture made it clear that he was injured, yet he didn't seem worried about her presence in the slightest.

  It dawned on her that the vulnerable part of him that he displayed in the car must've been the fabrication. Because sitting before her was a being almost as cold and cruel as the man that had spawned it. Maybe it was just a cold front he had put up due to not expecting her, or this was his true self. A monster plotting its next move and looking for any exploitable weakness it could take advantage of.

  One way or another it was clear that he had been the warlock all along. The tightly controlled power hiding within him showed that he had graduated from being a magic user and had become a true magician. The power hiding underneath the surface wasn't cold or hollow, it wasn't anything. It was a profound emptiness. Absolute nothingness made manifest.

  She had assumed he had done some questionable things. A lot of what he had said had probably been lies. But to think he was a stone cold killer left her shivering with despair. His father hadn't traumatized an innocent child, he had killed it. All that remained was a merciless monster far worse than Pietro. One that reveled in its power over others above all else.

  There had never been a time her magic had made her feel so much pain. She collapsed the spell before it made her heart shrivel up in her chest. Seeing someone's true nature had never before left her feeling so much grief. Maybe there was some way to save Al? But bringing someone like that back from the darkness felt insurmountable.

  Al was the warlock, and that fact made her sadness cut her from within.