“Wow, this place would make an amazing haunted house for Flick.” As he said that, Tristan stood at the front gate of the massive yard, totally overrun with weeds and tall grass, that surrounded a dilapidated old mansion. The place really did look like the top contendehr for a horror movie’s primary setting. It was also where his apparent cousin, Dylan Averty, had lived for the past several years, ever since her parents had been murdered right in front of her by people who were trying to do something that had to do with some guy called Galazien the Iron-Souled. Dylan probably would have been murdered as well, or worse, but she had been saved at the last moment by a Kitsune. Unfortunately, the Kitsune himself had been critically injured, passing away shortly after teleporting himself and Dylan out of there. But not before turning the girl into a Natural Heretic of himself and telling her not to trust anyone because they could be agents of Galazien.


    Apparently the man’s (if he was a man) people really had been looking for Dylan ever since. She’d been hiding from them, going from job to job while she secretly lived in this mansion and learned magic from the piles upon piles of books the Kitsune had around so she could protect herself. Whatever those people wanted with her, Dylan believed it had to do with freeing this Galazien or something. It seemed as though he couldn’t come to this world without her.


    All of this was incredibly confusing, to say the least. But Tristan wasn’t going to discount any of it after everything he’d seen and been a part of so far. He himself had been banished from Earth for a long time, only able to be here once he was anchored to first Flick, then Vanessa. If his aunt (also named Vanessa, whom his sister had been named in honor of) had really been some Eden’s Garden Heretic who was taken by the Seosten to fight on their front lines, maybe she ended up with some connection to this Galazien guy, and came back to Earth to hide out. There were a lot of pieces to the story that didn’t explain, like why she had been so helpless and died so easily if she was an experienced Boscher Heretic who had fought on the front lines of the Fomorian war and survived, but still.


    Answering some of those questions was part of why Tristan was here now, alongside Dylan herself, as well as Vanessa, and his sea Nymph friend, Dexamene. Dex had come back from several years in the future, leaving Nicholas Petan’s ship to help Flick save Elisabet as well as herself so they could keep the time-circle going where Elisabet set up what Flick needed to save herself in the future so that Flick herself could send Dexamene to help save Elisabet.


    It was a whole thing, and time travel remained incredibly stupid and confusing. But all Tristan really cared about was that his friend was here, and she had been a part of saving Flick and getting her back here as well.


    From her place at his left side, Vanessa pointed out, “You know Flick already has a haunted house, right? A real one, I mean. It’s full of ghosts and everything.”


    “Well sure,” he replied easily. “But she’s a super-powerful necromancer, right? So why shouldn’t she have more than one? If she’s gonna keep so many ghosts around, they might run out of space. Or she might want to have some of them down here on Earth. You know, for convenience. Plus, what if some of her ghosts don’t get along? Wait, ghost roommates who keep arguing, that’s an idea for a movie–nah, you’d need more than that. Maybe they’re civil war enemies? Or some sort of war. Maybe–hm. I gotta talk to Uncle Satan.”


    Dylan, on his right side, spoke up then. “I don’t think Mr. Foxman would want me to give his house away, but if these ghosts would like to rent a few rooms, we can probably work something out. How hard do you think it is to check their credit score? And rifle through their pockets looking for any missives from Galazien just in case.”


    As with most things the girl said, Tristan wasn’t sure whether she was kidding or not. Or where the line between her jokes and her very serious thoughts was drawn. Dylan had been through an incredibly traumatizing experience at a young age, and had proceeded to grow up essentially completely on her own under very odd and dangerous circumstances. It was obvious that sort of experience had shaped her, but just how much she played up for her own amusement was hard to say. After all, she had helped save Vanessa’s old roommate Erin, and kept her hidden from the Crossroads loyalists who were looking for her. Which told Tristan that there was a cunning girl underneath the outer oddness.


    And honestly, what the hell were the odds of that anyway? How likely was it that the girl who saved Vanessa’s roommate from Crossroads and helped her reunite with the Rebellion would be Vanessa and Tristan’s own cousin, whom they never knew existed? Sure, coincidences really did happen every day and all that, especially in this life. But that was still pushing things. Which was another reason they had come here. They needed answers, and considering the actual house where Dylan had lived with her parents, in Iowa, had turned up absolutely nothing, this was their next best chance. Sure, Dylan had already lived here for years, but she might have missed something. And she didn’t have the full perspective of things.


    For example, she hadn’t realized until Erin saw one of her sketches that the man who directed the intruders into her family’s house, the one who literally killed her father, was Jeremiah Dallant, the Crossroads Baron of Wyoming. The fact that he was a man who was supposed to be on their side, someone Gaia herself had trusted at least to an extent, was… yeah, another reason they had to find answers. No one had been able to contact Dallant since they’d found this stuff out. Which could have been because he couldn’t let himself be seen in contact with the Rebellion considering his position, or something more nefarious.


    Either way, they wouldn’t get answers to any of the large number of questions they had by standing here doing nothing. So, the group started to head across the overrun yard toward the front door. On the way, Dexamene spoke up curiously. “There’s an underground stream below this place.” The teal-skinned young woman with bright white hair was looking toward the ground, head tilted thoughtfully as she extended a hand to point. “It must be six feet wide and almost three feet deep, and it’s running quite quickly, maybe two hundred feet below us right now.”


    “You can sense water from that far away through all the dirt and rock?” Vanessa asked with fascination.


    As a white-tinged blush crossed her face, the Nymph nodded. “My parents taught me to extend my senses as far as possible so I could be useful for scouting missions. It helps when you can find water on other planets. Not just for Nymphs but for–uh, most people.”


    Dylan went up to undo several of the locking and alarm spells she had placed on the entrance. She had already undone the ones at the front gate to allow them to get this far. As she did so, the girl replied, “I don’t know anything about a stream underground, and the basement doesn’t go down that far, but there’s always been water for the pipes even though I never paid any utility bill. There’s been electricity too. Is there a lightning stream down there?”


    Dex, for her part, blinked a couple times. “I uh, I’d have to ask a very different sort of Nymph, sorry. Maybe there’s a magic generator around here somewhere giving the place power? That would make sense for a Kitsune to have, I think.”


    Vanessa nodded thoughtfully, giving Tristan a curious look. “If he was that strong, and from what Dylan says, he was, then having his own electricity source makes sense. But if it’s managed to keep going for this long, years without being recharged or checked, then… then he was a really strong mage.”


    By that point, Dylan had managed to open up the front door, her voice matter-of-fact. “Of course he was strong. I told you, he killed most of Galazien’s men in that room, before the one in the doorway threw that spear. And he still lived long enough to do that spell and make me drink his blood.”


    “A spell to guarantee you turned into a Natural Heretic of him,” Tristan noted. “Or at least raise the odds. I didn’t even know there was that kind of spell.” As he said that, the boy followed the others in through the front door to the entrance area of the old mansion. “And the fact that he did it while he was… uh, you know… bleeding out was…” He whistled low, both a continuation of his thought, and at the grand sight around them. This place really was magnificent, even more so now that they were on the inside. The grounds beyond were so rundown and covered in weeds that seeing how clean and perfect the inside of the place was made it feel like they were in a whole different place. Which was apparently not only because Dylan had been hiding. According to the girl, the grounds had looked pretty much like that from the moment she had arrived.


    Maybe the Foxman had been hiding too? Or maybe he just didn’t care about keeping up on the yard work.


    Working together, the group started looking through the whole mansion. It took quite some time considering the size of the place and how much it was to look at. When they reached the main library, Tristan was almost certain Vanessa was going to pass out from the sheer joy of the new magic books stacked up on all the shelves. This Kitsune guy had really known his stuff, and he had the library to prove it. According to Nessa, there were books in this place that even the main library at Crossroads hadn’t had. It was going to take a long time to sort through all of it, but she was practically salivating at the thought of spending days upon days, even weeks, holed up in this place reading through absolutely everything she could get her hands on.


    But that would come later. At the moment, they simply gave the books a skim through to see if anything stood out. Well, any more than books full of magic spells would already stand out. Right now, they had more rooms to look through. So, despite Vanessa’s longing glances back that way, the group continued on. Apparently most of these rooms Dylan had barely so much as glanced in. She was only one person, after all. So they had remained empty for all these years, yet they were as clean as the rooms she used regularly. And considering it was obvious that no one was going in and cleaning them, that had to be the result of more magic. And that was a spell Tristan was interested in finding out more about. An enchantment that could make it so he never had to clean his room again? Yes please.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    In any case, fifteen minutes later they still hadn’t found any hidden rooms or anything. Which was kind of disappointing, to be honest. An old mansion this size with all these amazing magic books in it, previously owned by a mysterious old Kitsune? It should have been positively teeming with secret passageways. Every other candlestick or book they pulled on should’ve opened up a new doorway. At this rate, Tristan was starting to think that all those comic books and cartoons had been lying to him for years. He even took Bobbi-Bobbi off his neck and woke the cyberform snake up from her necklace form to have her look for any secret areas that were too small for them to notice or get into.


    Going through the kitchen, on the other hand, had been a mistake. Not because they found any enemies, but because of the potatoes. Vanessa had opened up the fridge, only to find a whole pile of mutilated potatoes. The fact that they were too old to salvage would have been bad enough for the girl whose love for spuds of all shapes and sizes rivaled that of her love for learning. But the fact that they’d had a knife taken to them by Dylan, who simply informed them that she had done so at the grocery store she worked at because potatoes had ‘eyes’ that Galazien could use to spy on them, was enough to make her twitch and stare accusingly at the other girl throughout the next few rooms.


    As they left the third lavish bathroom on the fourth floor alone, Dex held up a hand for everyone to stop. “Okay,” the Nymph announced, “you know how I felt that stream before? Well when I stand right here, I can feel a big reservoir or lake or something down there." She positioned herself in the bathroom itself, right next to the enormous whirlpool tub. “It’s still a few hundred feet below us, and I can only sense the edge of it, but judging by what I can sense, it’s really big.”


    Dylan piped up with a curious, “There was a big lake under Mr. Foxman’s house this whole time? I wish I would’ve known. He doesn’t have a pool and I wanted to go swimming.”


    Vanessa and Tristan exchanged looks, before the blonde girl spoke solely for both of them. “It doesn’t look like there’s anything out of the ordinary in this place. I mean anything we can use right now. So if there’s some mysterious underground lake, maybe we should check into that. It couldn’t hurt.”


    Everyone agreed, before the group made their way downstairs. Or at least, to the lowest level Dylan knew about. Which was still a good two hundred and fifty feet away from where the stream and pool, or reservoir, or whatever it was were supposed to be. They spent the next ten minutes or so going over every inch of the basement with a fine-tooth comb. There were even more old books down here, in a series of cement rooms with absolutely no decorations or anything in them. It was just crates of books and other supplies, along with what looked to their untrained eyes like a truly magnificent collection of wine.


    But still, there were no candlesticks or books to pull on that opened any secret passages. Which was again, quite disappointing from Tristan’s point of view. He was starting to think that they should just give up on doing this the simple way and use their powers and magic to dig straight down. Or at an angle, whatever.


    But before he could suggest that– well, before he could seriously suggest it anyway, Vanessa spoke up from the corner of one of the rooms full of racks of wine bottles. “These are out of order. The rest are stacked by age, but these three are in the wrong spots.”


    Tristan shook his head while stepping over there. “We already tried pulling out all the bottles. Maybe we put them back in the wrong spots.”


    “No, this is the same order they were in before,” Vanessa informed him. “You have a perfect memory now too, don’t you remember?”


    He flashed a smirk that way while replying, “You have to actually pay attention to something before you can remember it. And who pays attention to the dates on some old wine bottles?”


    Instead of answering, Vanessa silently pulled the three bottles out and rearranged them in the correct order. As soon as she did so, there was a humming noise from the wall nearby. Then it shimmered a bit before vanishing to reveal an open doorway with a stairwell leading down.


    “Well,” Dylan noted, “I think that’s a point for paying attention being useful.”


    With a giggle, Dexamene put in, “She’s got you there, Tristy.”


    Eyes widening a little, Vanessa looked that way. “Tristy?”


    Tristan cleared his throat pointedly and quickly walked through the new opening to start down the stairs. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s see what’s down in this hidden pool.”


    Dylan stopped him with what amounted to a flying tackle, however, yanking him away from that spot. Giving the boy an exasperated look, she launched into a litany of the dangerous spells or traps that could have killed all of them if he just blundered forward, while going through her own system of testing the entrance for any of them. Even when the testing turned up nothing, she still insisted they proceed slowly and carefully.


    So, the group did just that, as they descended what turned out to be an incredibly long and winding staircase. Tristan was starting to wish they had found a secret elevator instead.


    But eventually, they came off the stairs into a small room, which itself had a simple doorway that was standing open for them. They exchanged looks, each of them preparing themselves for whatever they might find in here. Then Dylan tested that spot quite thoroughly as well, before they all stepped through. Together, the group emerged into what turned out to be a massive open chamber. It had clearly been carved from stone by something that seemed to have turned the walls, floor, and ceiling into an almost glass like smoothness. As promised, there was a very large pool of water right in the middle of the chamber, with that stream running into it. From here, it looked like the lake or whatever was thirty or so feet deep toward the center. But it was hard to tell for certain, considering the spaceship that was hovering on top of it.


    Yeah, spaceship. It was about fifty feet wide by eighty feet long. Not very large as far as ships went. The thing was shaped like the letter V, and made of what looked like blue and red metal. It was just tall enough for a human male about six feet or so to stand up in without banging their head. It looked like there were tubes leading into the ship full of flowing water from the reservoir.


    All of them stopped short upon seeing the ship. Dylan raised her hand. “I changed my mind about the pool. I would’ve much rather known this was here.”


    “It must be the Kitsune’s ship,” Tristan murmured, stepping to the very edge of the pool. This place was big enough that the edge of the ship was still a good twenty feet away. Bobbi-Bobbi, who had draped herself around his neck as they made their way down here, lifted her head to hiss curiously in the direction of the ship itself.


    “No kidding,” Tristan replied. “I want to know what’s in that thing too. Maybe there’s the answers we’ve been looking for.”


    Before any of the others could say anything, the ship abruptly lit up and rose a few more inches off the water. An electronic feminine voice spoke up. “Intruders detected. Scanning.” And just like that, the ship sent some sort of glowing blue light over each of them. Tristan started to tell everyone to get down, but the ship spoke again while the light remained lingering on him and Vanessa. “Partial match found. Inadequate for entry.”


    The light then moved to Dylan. “Partial match found. Adequate for entry.” With that, the light went out, and the side of the ship opened before a ramp extended all the way out to the edge of the pool for them.


    Tristan’s mouth opened and shut. “Why would we all be partial matches for a ship in the basement of that– oh, he really was working with Aunt Vanessa, wasn’t he? The ship must know her from that. But enough that she has access to it?”


    Dylan had already started to move across the ramp. “If my mom had something to do with this thing, I want to know everything about it.”


    No sooner had she said those words, then the electronic voice from the ship itself spoke again. “This is the Kelmunigan Starship series 74WTK1X. Currently operating under the ship title, Duskraiser. Owned and piloted by Vanessa Holt, in her duties as emissary and guardian for the being known as Galazien the Iron-Souled.”


    That made Dylan almost fall off the ramp, taking a quick step back. “What? My mom didn’t work for Galazien. His men killed her, and my dad.”


    There was a brief pause before the ship replied, “That is illogical. Vanessa Holt has faithfully served Galazien in many ways for a very long time. He trusts her implicitly and would never send anyone to harm her. Even in her current state of memory loss, Galazien would never wish for her to be harmed.”


    “Memory loss?” Vanessa–their Vanessa, put in. “What do you mean?”


    Once again, there was that brief pause before the ship answered. “Vanessa Holt was granted leave from Galazien’s service in order to raise her child. By her own wish in order to maintain as ordinary of a life as possible for the then-infant until the child was old enough to begin learning the truth, her memory was shielded. Vanessa Holt did not wish to spend so much time obsessing over what else could be happening out in the universe while she spent these years with her child. Galazien agreed, as those few years would mean little in the long run. There is no logic in him then intending harm toward her. It is far more likely that the agents of Galazien have done these things.”


    Tristan shook his head. “What’s the difference between him doing it and people who work for him doing it?”


    The ship corrected him. “The so-called agents of Galazien do not work for him. He has been working to avoid them for many millennia. They wish to bring him back into this universe against his desires. Vanessa Holt and those like her work to prevent that from happening.”


    Dex was the first to find her voice. “Why wouldn’t he want to come back to this universe? And why would they be trying so hard to make it happen if he doesn’t want it to?”


    After a brief pause, the ship answered. “The one known as Galazien is intrinsically connected to a small group of creatures who nearly destroyed all life in this universe millions of years ago. A ritual performed by one of those now known as Primals connected Galazien to those creatures. If he returns to this universe in full, so too will they.


    “That is what the cult who call themselves the Agents of Galazien wish to do. They would bring him back to this universe against his will so that the Destroyers will follow him, and finish the job of annihilating every being who lives here.”


    Dylan took a few more steps back away from the ramp and slumped down, sitting hard on the cavern floor. “He wasn’t bad?” She sounded as though her entire worldview had been completely rocked. “My mom worked for him before they killed her? And she… she didn’t even remember any of it because she wanted to raise me.”


    “Another inconsistency,” the ship informed them. “Vanessa Holt is not deceased. Her life is connected to this ship. If it was ended, this ship would be aware.”


    Dylan immediately burst to her feet, blurting, “What? What are you saying?”


    Vanessa moved next to the girl, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I think it’s saying that your mom is still alive. And probably being held by those guys who want to bring Galazien back.”


    “I know how we can find out for sure,” Tristan noted.


    “We just have to get answers out of Baron Jeremiah Dallant.”