When a key is not a key ((for Harry))

[slayers_desire]

It has started a few weeks ago, with the disturbing nightmares that forced April to wake up in the middle of the night. Nightmares that while connected to her voices, were so real and visual, that it was like she had been there in the moment.

In the moment of a death. It was not like most deaths that she saw through her voices... instead, it was like the person has disappeared. And April knew each time it happened it was like a little piece of the universe had been stolen.

Clark had advised her to go to the research library hidden in Lorne's bar. And that was where she was, when a commotion was raised from the meeting area of the Scoobies. Coming out of the library, she saw her father, Spike, placing Dawn onto a couch. The young girl was flickering... disappearing and reappearing... it was so shocking, she thought she was dreaming again.

"Someone help her! I am nothing without her!" Spike called out.

April frowned. Something was seriously wrong. And her intuition was telling her that whatever was going wrong, had to do with some serious magic. Returning into the library, April used her PINpoint to call up Harry Dresden. Hopefully he could provide some insight...

Comments

[slayers_desire]

"Ohh kay... we will need to find a few of those things. But we are on it." Wes heads into the back storage area.

[thepizzalord]

Harry knows it sounds like an odd assortment of items, and they would be right. But there's also a very good reason why his lab on the Normandy, and the one he used to have in Chicago, looks as though it's full of random junk.

"If you've got a chain about ten feet long, that'd be super too," Harry calls out as Wes goes to find the requested items.

[slayers_desire]

"Gotta."

April sits by the bar, taking a moment to collect herself. "What are you going to do?"

[thepizzalord]

"Magic in my world's highly personalized, very customizable," Harry explains, taking one of the other chalk colors and marking outside the circle, five marks, all evenly spaced. "I'm gonna conjure up a nice solid barrier spell to go along with the circle, to block her off from outside influence completely. Got the five senses covered, and a chain to top it off, for containment."

[slayers_desire]

"And then once she is protected? What about if they go after others?"

[thepizzalord]

"Hopefully they won't get that far. If this Trio is actually absorbing the Keys in body as well as in soul, I should be able to scry for their location. The only trick is, I need a part of Dawn to track. Preferably a lock of hair or somethin' else she can live without."

[slayers_desire]

"Won't you have to break your protection circle to do that?"

[thepizzalord]

"Unfortunately, yes. But it should only be for a couple seconds. I'll set up the barrier spell outside the other circle and wait to juice it up until I break the circle, get some hair, then bam, spell time."

[slayers_desire]

Wes returns from the storage room, having found everything that Harry had request. "Here you go."

[thepizzalord]

"Great," Harry says, looking over the items. Everything that he asked for, no matter how weird. He begins setting them up at the points he already marked out in chalk, placing the brick last.

He then lays the chain down, going clockwise around the already-existing chalk circle, and leaves the last few lengths of chain turned out, not touching. "I'm gonna have to move fast," Harry says, drawing his sword again. The silver sword looks simple, but is a very powerful magic item, attuned to Harry, sharp enough even to sever enchantments.

((Merry Christmas :D))

[slayers_desire]

"Too bad Clark isn't here..." April smiles softly. Superspeed is handy at times.

((Merry Christmas to you))

[thepizzalord]

"Wouldn't work anyway," Harry says, eyeing the circle, and how far away Dawn is. He's not going to have much time to react, and he wants to make sure he gets this right on the first try, and doesn't cut her head off by accident or something.

He readies the sword, and approaches the circle. He smudges out the chalk with his boot, feeling the magic dissipate, and leaps forward towards Dawn.

[slayers_desire]

April waits and watches. There is not much else she can do right now, besides that.

[thepizzalord]

Harry's practiced hand cuts a lock from Dawn's hair, and he snatches it out of the air, stepping back out of the dispersed circle in the same step. He kicks the ends of the chain together, and pours his will into it, drawing power from all five objects around it. The barrier spell leaps up from the chain, almost tangible in the air around the couch.

[slayers_desire]

"Whoa..." Spike whispers softly from his spot beside April, as he watches with her.

[thepizzalord]

"That's how ya do it," Harry says, satisfied in his work. "She should be totally stable now." At least, he sure hopes so.

[slayers_desire]

"How long do we keep her in there?" Spike asks.

[thepizzalord]

"Until we can track down these Trio guys and stop them at the source." Harry holds up the lock of hair. "That's where this comes in. You guys have a globe and a Bunsen burner? I need to boil this up."

[slayers_desire]

"The girl will have to eat..." Spike mumbles in protest. Wes gestures to the library, where they have a decorative globe.

"I will find a Bunsen burner." He added.

[thepizzalord]

"Yeah, but it shouldn't take long. If it does... well, I guess I can always drop the circle and recast, but I'd prefer not to if we can avoid it." Harry digs in his pockets and comes up with a crystal with a piece of twine tied around it.

"Great," he says, nodding at the addition of the burner. "Now all we need is a pot and some water, and we're cooking with gas."

[slayers_desire]

"Everything but the kitchen sink?" Wes chuckles.

"If you find them, what is your next step?"

[thepizzalord]

"We go knock, nicely," Harry says bluntly. "And if they don't answer, we kick the door down."

[slayers_desire]

"I think it would take more than the four of us." April points out gently. While she has faith in her father, Wes and Harry... she also knows that the Trio are a serious threat.

[thepizzalord]

"Then we call up some friends, and then go kick the door down." What he wouldn't give for the kinds of allies he could get in his home universe... but he'll have to make the best of what he has.

[slayers_desire]

"Good thing we have a few friends... might even convince Buffy and Angel to come along, even if they can't remember Dawn." Spike nods.