The ride across a bumpy rural highway served as the last leg of Nadine’s commute to Albrooke. This was one of those parts of the province where tall buildings and busy streets had yielded hours ago to field upon field of frozen soil. It was rough, exchanging Undel’s neon lights for the monotonous scene composed of dead husks of crop that survived the combine’s pass. Only in this seemingly desolate landscape was the darkness of night truly free to flex and encompass nature’s harmless digits which the light wouldn’t ignore during its shift.

       The more she studied Willem’s file, the more she wanted to know how he could have lowered himself to practicing magic. She learned through her investigation that he actually moved back to Albrooke two-and-half years earlier to establish himself as the richest man in town at age twenty-six. Upon his return, he bought a farm outside of town from the grandparents of one of her friends in high school and built his estate on its ruins. She recalled the land as being very isolated.

       Between the lines Nadine could read the absolutely valid reasons why the public and Masks were concerned. First, Willem did not hire a crew to level the old estate, nor did he hire one to build this supposed palace he’d hidden outside of Albrooke. Although there were no pictures of it, everyone who had seen could attest to its staggering grandeur. Raised to completion in just under two weeks, it was only built during the night in stages which should have taken just as long apiece.

       Nearly a half year ago the land itself began to change in ways neither science nor nature could explain. It was the local hunters who first discovered something was awry when they happened upon a patch of woodland that was void of all color, all life. An aerial sweep discovered many more tainted sites including a new breed of anomaly. In places the earth was swollen, some by only a few inches, others several feet. Sinkholes appeared in just as many places, spontaneously, without warning or witness. Tests of soil and samples taken from trees revealed nothing of their affliction. The population began to worry that this plague would spread to the crops or split the roads and as a whole pled their case to the Masks.

       Nadine and her peers used the organization’s vast resources to study the evidence gathered from the sites. They would come to discover that the anomalies were not limited to the land itself but the skies as well. The weather patterns over Albrooke defied forecast and worked independently of the greater system governing the rest of the continent, let alone the world over. Seeing the changes led to the conclusion that the area’s ecosystem was being consciously optimized, but how, why, and by whom?

       Her superiors made it quite clear that they suspected the key to unlocking Albrooke’s secret lay with Willem, or at least the company he kept. The pictures included in her file of his known entourage were littered with faces that were surely a human guise. The images were blurred by the unseen flux of magic pressing down on the photographer before he barely made it out of Albrooke alive. She noticed many faces had outstanding warrants, some of which were bitter rivals to one another. She wondered what could have united them under Willem’s increasingly significant banner.

       With this in mind, Nadine focused her attentions away from the repeating scenery to her own faded reflection in the window. While she wasn’t vain, she surely wasn’t going to face meet him again without looking anything short of her best. She fixed her shoulder-length auburn hair for what must have been the twentieth time and checked herself in the visor mirror.

       It was the sign which announced their arrival that lured her dark brown eyes away from her self-evaluation. She couldn’t help but note the population count displayed in a lesser font under the name had gone up by several hundred citizens. To gaze upon her town from the highway made her smile, for only in Albrooke could time stand so still. She turned to the driver when she noticed he was keeping the car idle at a rural intersection whose straight route led to Willem’s home.

       Timothy Atkins was a smarmy young man two older than Nadine and had been with the Mask for nearly twice as long. Like she, he was recognized for his vigilance and was selected to accompany her during the excursion. Tim’s trained eye and natural instincts made him the perfect candidate to act as her subordinate. His skills with the pistols hidden in nearly every fold of his uniform and the knife hidden on his lower leg were unparalleled. Unfortunately, he was also known throughout the company as an avid skirt-chaser. With any luck, he would serve his role without behaving as stupid as other female agents insisted he was.

       She leaned forward to turn down the obnoxious music he played at a ridiculous volume to both check the time and take the silence she needed to focus. With that, Tim pushed the car towards this supposed palace Willem erected beyond Albrooke’s borders. Along the way, Nadine noticed the commute she had taken many times during her life here was altered in more ways than just those noted in the report.

       Land hosting an old hermit’s shack that was once steeped in legend had been completely erased from view. Standing in its place was a proud farmhouse that looked like it had been there for decades and was flanked by many greenhouses which glowed placidly in the waning light. The sinkholes that appeared close enough to the road for her to see had since filled with clear, sparkling water teeming with life. Even the woods looked lush, greener, thriving like never before.

       They pulled into the driveway, a crude dirt elevation worn with deep tire marks. The car scraped several times; Tim winced with each crunch of stones against the underbelly. Half-way in, the fields around gave way to a forest where the sky no longer existed below a canopy of dying leaves. The trees looked as if they were in a wrestling match overhead that would last decades, limbs and branches intertwining in an attempt to slowly strangle one another, where the winner claimed more coveted sunlight and space. The eyes of wildlife reflected off the headlights, making them feel vulnerable to elements they usually took for granted.

       Finally, they came to the clearing hosting the compound, rendering both Nadine and Tim utterly awestruck. This palace Willem had built was indeed just that, easily dwarfing the largest home in Albrooke by itself. Tarrant manor, as it was called, would have had an alien appearance no matter where it would have been erected in the world. The three-story home was painted in a dull palette combinations and variations of grey, black, and white. There were many windows along the surface area, each very long, as if they spanned entire rooms at once. Even the top floor, smaller than the others and cylindrical in form, was lined with a narrow band of glass that allowed whoever was up there to see all over the compound. Each doubled as a one-way mirror, prohibiting anyone from seeing the interior from outside. Some areas were simply reflective cubes, but the view from within must have been breathtaking.

       As they approached the home, its immensity seemed to wrap around them, looming overhead like it would topple at any moment. A woman stood at the end of the lane, gesturing towards a parking space between a high-end sports model and a heavy-looking car which looked like it could hold its own in a head-on with a vehicle twice its size. Tim took a moment to pat his gun and rub his sweating palms against his pants before he opened the door. Nadine noticed he had been somewhat nervous and unlike himself since they left the city.

       The woman who directed them to the space was nearly upon them and Tim took notice.  She was tall, in her late twenties and dressed in a business suit made up of varied shades of grey. Her body was slim, but the parts of her limbs which could be seen, her legs from the skirt and forearms from her short sleeves, were well toned. She was in remarkable shape. Maria’s brown eyes stared out at her from behind a pair of glasses that looked like they were in fashion a hundred years earlier. She looked tense, as though the errands she ran put her in a constant state of unrest.

       Her name was Maria Benson and she served as Willem’s personal assistant. Records indicated she was a brilliant woman and held an array of degrees from the same university Nadine attended. She was said to be fiercely loyal, yet independent and headstrong. It was rumored that she also looks upon Willem with the affection of a trusted friend, their bond just shy of that shared by siblings. And yet in her eyes Nadine noted a hint of what must have been contempt hidden behind formality.

       “Mask agents, I presume,” Maria said with a respectful bow, “Welcome.”

       “Thank you,” Nadine said, looking once again at Willem’s home, “Goodness, it’s nearly overwhelming.”

       “It certainly is quite the marvel.” She agreed, “Solar panels and wind turbines spread across the property make the structure entirely self-sufficient.” A smile crossed her lips as she took a moment to gaze upon the home herself, “He designed it himself, you know. Are you surprised?”

       “No, actually,” Nadine replied, “Now that I think of it, I expected nothing less….”

       “Well, I wish we could just stand here and sing his praises all day,” Tim interjected with a stern look in Nadine’s direction, “But can we actually speak to him?” The notion suddenly made Nadine’s stomach churn with anxiety. What did he look like? What had he become with his riches? Would he be willing to shed some light on why he left Albrooke those years earlier? The fact was, none of that mattered; the job came first.

       “Of course.” Maria made a nod which switched her formality back into gear, “He’s inspecting the site of the latest anomaly, personally.” She gestured for them to follow, “Come. You can speak to him and see it for yourself at the same time.”

       Beyond the cleared area of the estate was a two-meter wide path leading into the splendid serenity of Willem’s forest. Maria told them that this, the latest of appearances they had come to investigate was spotted just two days earlier by a crew documenting the occurrences by air. Apparently Willem owned not just the expansive lot hosting his estate but also bought three of the farms surrounding his property and was planning to develop them. On that topic, Maria was professionally evasive so the matter would have to slide for the time being.

       After several minutes of listening to Tim reveal his true colors in the company of the lovely Maria they finally reached yet another clearing among the thick wood. Just where the sun was at that mid-afternoon position, the land rose sharply above the surrounding area. “I’ve got to admit, it sounded a lot more dramatic in our reports…” Tim confessed.

       “Don’t be too quick to judge,” Maria insisted, scaling the rise, “and have a look.”

       On the other side there was a sinkhole which must have been nearly twenty meters deep and several hundred across. The trees which stood here lay stacked randomly, dying on top of one another, most of which were a sickly gray as if in the advanced stages of terminal disease. Maria directed them to a series of steps carved into the exposed mantle to accommodate the investigation already underway. As they made their descent, Nadine noticed a trio of figures lingering towards the center, too far away to see in detail. Of them there was one whose body language was immediately recognizable, sedated, as if little warranted elaborate response. They noticed Maria with their guests and began towards them.

       Willem in adult form was more entity than man. He had cut his hair and kept it just short enough to begin curling so that no two locks pointed in the same direction. That bluish sheen that could be seen glinting subtly in his mane was now captured in frayed tips. He had become a handsome man whose stature had grown still two more inches since she had last seen him. Nadine forgot how prominent his presence could be and it seemed that aspect had since doubled in effect. That casual, signature stride his confidence made an unstoppable gait that parted crowds and made anyone second-guess aggression. She glanced briefly into his radiant eyes before addressing the others just the same.

       At his right she could hardly believe she found another entity with the same amount of weight in her step. Each of which, for the record, made a small thud Nadine and Tim could feel deep underneath their feet. Her brunette curls bounced around a slender, flawless face with bright green eyes. As they got closer she slung her arm possessively across Willem’s shoulder, which was at least eight inches below her own. There was little question of her humanity; this was a Nephilim, at the very least a Halfling.

       The other was just tall enough to be staring malevolently at her eye to eye. Beautiful and curvaceous her hollow pupils betrayed this immaculately conceived illusion. Her platinum hair shimmered so wildly, defying the patterns of natural light that it only proved there was less flesh to this thing than the agents’ side arms, which suited them all just fine. This thing was hardly corporeal, and perhaps may have even been a projection broadcast from wherever its true form waited.

       “I take it these things have their papers?” Tim asked unflinchingly,

       “Some would consider that a slur,” The platinum-haired one spoke in a digitized tone,

       “I have no problem with races or creeds,” Tim said, “This is a species thing. I don’t have to like you.” He flipped through the papers Maria handed him, “Advisor passports…” He handed them to Nadine, “I see you have your own in here too – that’s too bad.”

       “Does my being a mage mean you’ll stop looking at me like I’m another piece of the pub trash you drag home?” Maria asked him, with the most perfectly emasculating stare either of them had ever seen.

       “I can drag you to jail if you want to keep prodding my mind like that.”

       “I didn’t need magic to figure that out.” The entourage chuckled but Willem was still, preoccupied by matters outside their concern, “Even the flip side to your civilization is intrigued by what is happening here in Albrooke.”

       “Willem Tarrant,” Tim opened the forum, “Timothy Atkins” They shook hands and turned their attentions to Nadine, “I believe you know my partner, here.”

       “Of course.” He said with the slightest nod, “Welcome home.”

       “You too,” She said, “Belatedly.”

       “Now that we’re all caught up,” Tim stepped in, noting the tension, “We’ve got a paycheck to earn. Tell us why we’re here.”

Continue to Chapter 3