Chapter 77

Kyle ignored the standoff between Sam, Jones, and the jackass trying to sneak off with just part of the device. Like, come on, did that jerk not get that he was dealing with someone from the museum? He, like every mage trained to work at the museum, had spells specifically to prevent theft from their retrieval sites and ensure the recovery of entire artifacts no matter how many pieces they were in.

Which got… interesting… sometimes.

There were stories that got shared with all the new trainees at the museum. One heard things around the water cooler so to speak. Now he’d have his own story to share about how someone tried to make off with a piece of artifact and his spell had revealed it. If only it were something to smile about and not people being disappointingly greedy.

Oh, well.

He got to work collecting pieces of the artifact as he activated his levitation ability. As a Warlock of the Archivist, that particular ability was intrinsic to his nature. One might wonder how super dope telekinesis powers were related to what was in practice being a glorified record keeper. Kyle wouldn’t, but one might if they didn’t know what all being an archivist entailed. Warlocks of the Archivist were keepers and retrievers of knowledge.

That was a simplistic way of putting it, but there it was. Sure, with new knowledge an archivist might find everything they wanted to know on a convenient database, or printed out neatly in a book somewhere. But some records were destroyed, mangled, or damaged. Telekinesis allowed a warlock to lift an item in its totality without applying pressure to any one part to avoid damaging it further. Or applying in just specific locations to hold it together as a whole while examining it. Virtual reconstruction without getting contaminants that could destroy old papyrus rubbing off from fingers? Sure thing. How about avoiding contact with dangerous unknown substances or unknown enchantments that might be on an artifact or a spell scroll?

Telekinesis was part and parcel with the position. Kyle had magic before he’d made his warlock pact with his patron. Not great magic, not even in high magic areas because he hadn’t know enough big spells to use that magic. Except for the divine fire spell that Michael accidentally taught them that one time, but that didn’t count.

The shouting had settled down over by Sam and Jones and not long afterward, Kyle heard their footsteps coming back, presumably with the missing piece of the artifact. He assumed that it was Sam and Jones because Alex glanced up and didn’t seem concerned. The hazmat suits they were all wearing contained each person’s aura so Kyle couldn’t recognize his siter that way. Which was weird, it was weird not being able to sense her aura when it was something he was so familiar with. His telekinesis would have also been blocked by the suit if not for the fact that it was augmented by his warlock power and his intentions could be commanded through his book.

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“Kyle,” Sam’s voice came over the speaker in his suit and he felt that dopamine hit of being right about something that he had inferred. “Catch.” Instinctively Kyle’s body jerked around to be ready for the small object. He barely managed to refocus his magic, catching the small flesh-stained object and placing the piece gently within the growing collection of other debris.

“While I appreciate your faith in my skills dear sister, I would really prefer you not test them with something so important next time,” Kyle responded dryly. Despite the near fumble, he did smile at Sam’s Sam-ness.

“Well, I didn’t want to keep holding it. The thing killed a dragon, Kyle. Besides, I really doubt my toss would’ve done more damage to it than getting blasted across the street by an expanding dragon corpse.” Sam reasoned while gesturing at a piece of shrapnel lodged deep enough into the road that Kyle’s telekinesis had yet to recover it.

“Road?” Kyle’s face took on a look of confused concern at the word. “What road… oh.” His gaze had followed three sets of fingerings pointing on the arms of three different people to another glowing spot he hadn’t gotten around to yet. A large chunk of asphalt was propped vertically against a waist-sized pile of other chunks of asphalt. “Huh?!” He cocked his head at what was clearly some of the wrecked road from the incident site. There were reflectors, lane separation lines, and the magic collector grid were visible on it. “I did not see that.”

“How did you miss that?” Sam scoffed incredulously with furrowed brows.

“It was organized before I got here and wasn’t worked on while I was watching?” He suggested with a shrug. “But now that I see it, I concede your point about the… throwing of things.”

It was a fair point. Besides that, even if the random component had fallen and broken further, Kyle and the museum were likely the people most qualified in the world to piece it back together again. Way better than the king's horses, the museum was. He worked quickly after that, his sister, Jones, and that – that Alex person pointing glows out helpfully as he went.

“Over here, Kyle.”

“Another piece there.”

“I think this is something, oh, never mind.”

That last bit made Kyle grit his teeth and seethe with irritation. The freaking noob his sister had brought with her instead of a functional agent. But alas, there was nothing to be done for it. They’d just finished wrapping up the gathering when a rhythmic alarm sounded and lights near the tall doors of the sealed room began strobing in time with it.

“What’s that?” Kyle questioned the observation room through his suit comms. There was a quick crackle of magical interference as someone keyed on their mic to respond. That was concerning, there shouldn’t have been magical interference with them inside their suits in a sealed room.

“The second dragon has arrived; they’re bringing it through the big airlock.” Oh. That’s what was wrong with the comms.

“Acknowledged.” He picked up his case and made sure to set the location spell in his book before gesturing for his companions to follow him to the smaller air lock.

“Can’t we wait for Gleipnir?” Sam inquired wistfully. Which Kyle understood, it had probably been years since they’d been apart for this long.

“Gleipnir wouldn’t want you in here when he releases that thing,” Kyle assured her. “It’s suppressed by him and it’s still glitching out the electronics through two layers of magical insulation. Which is either a sign of how powerful it is or is a sign that this facility’s insulation sucks. Either way, we should get out of here.”

As he spoke, the massive door on the far side of the giant room began to rise.