《Tempus Deus》


 Chapter 1: Lost

    The wind whipped through the willow trees, and I cursed. It was dark and wet outside, the damp of the forest darkening my vision even further than the dimness of the night had already. I¡¯d known it would be a risk taking my staff out and meeting a client at this time of night, but didn¡¯t think it would be this bad!


    Another branch snapped above me, and I ducked. A sudden snapping sound from the underbrush beside the road called my attention, a quick tap on my flashlight showing the source: a cat. Only a cat. Of course.


    I sighed, and kept walking forward.


    My name¡¯s Felicia Dotts, and I¡¯m a wizard. Not a very pleasant one, I¡¯ll admit, but I am a wizard.


    My specialty is in magical law-dealing with demons, gadding with ghosts, vanishing vampires, et cetera.


    My prices are low-only a few thousand for each banishment.


    My employment? Minimal. As it turns out, even busy cities like New Yorkshire don¡¯t have much use for magical contract law-mundane lawyers do just fine, and anything a normal lawyer can¡¯t deal with gets an exterminator called instead. Dawn and dusk, I hate faeries.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    But as rarely as I was hired, as unusual my being called to action, as absolutely unimaginable the thought of my getting a business call, it had happened. Some vampire out in Mireland had called in with a complaint, some beancounter had gone to check it out and never come back, and badda bing badda boom-before you know it, big bad Felicia the ¡°demon lawyer¡± gets called out to go deal with it.


    I don¡¯t like my coworkers very much.


    But nevertheless, here I was-marching halfway through an ancient and probably haunted forest, carrying only a bedamned staff for self defense, and with no way to know who my client was and what¡¯s going on until I get there.


    I love my job.


    What I don¡¯t like, however, is the fact that there¡¯s a werewolf behind me.


    I spin, and my brain registers-big, brown, tall, no loincloth, scary- and before I know it I¡¯ve conked him over the head with my staff and started running.


    I hear a call from behind me- a Hey, wait! that my mind recognises, but does not acknowledge. I¡¯m already running.


    And sure enough, I find myself stopping a half-hour later as my other shoe comes off, my ankle twists against a tree root, and I realise I am lost as my shin bangs against some bark that is most decidedly not the soft sweetwood of the trees I¡¯d been seeing in the forest.


    Uh oh.


    I¡¯m lost.