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

[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.

[thepizzalord]

"Better hope so. Anything that's going after people like the Keys is a threat worth investigating, especially if it's making folks forget." Harry pulls a few bits and bobs out of his pockets to add to the pot, and before too long, the mixture is ready. He dunks the crystal, making sure to coat it thoroughly, then dangles it over the globe, slowly rotating it to see if he can get a fix on the Trio's general location.

[slayers_desire]

Unfortunately, since the Trio do not exist in a physical sense, Harry is having difficulties pinpointing their general location.

[thepizzalord]

"Hmm." Harry rubs at his chin with his free hand, once he sees the scrying crystal is getting him nowhere. "There is something else I can try, but I'm not sure if it'll work."

[slayers_desire]

"What is it?"

[thepizzalord]

"I can open one of the Ways between the worlds and scry there. It should be able to give us at least a direction to start looking. But I don't know if your world has anything like the Ways."

[slayers_desire]

"That would be hard to answer without knowing more about the Ways."

[thepizzalord]

"Anything outside the mortal realm, really, not counting the Outer Gates. The Ways are mostly Faerie, although there's a lot of in-between stuff, including some people's ideas of an underworld or the homes of other supernatural nasties that aren't the Fae."

[slayers_desire]

"We do have Fae in our dimension. Some can be right nasty..." Spike comments. "But a lot of our Demons exist in... connecting dimensions to our main one."

"I myself grew up in a connecting dimension." April adds.

[thepizzalord]

"Could be the right place to look, if they aren't here. I can open the Ways, but we'd need to be in the right sort of place. They don't map straight over our realm one-to-one; you might go five feet in Faerie and come out miles away from where you started here. They kind of tend to map to places of similar... feel, I guess. Opening a Way in a prison would lead you somewhere pretty dark and dangerous, opening one in a peaceful field would probably be one of the light and fluffy parts of Faerie. We need a center of knowledge."

[slayers_desire]

"A center of knowledge?"

[thepizzalord]

Harry nods. "Somewhere where you can find information on almost anything you want. Sort of like the Nexus library, but it has to be here, on this Earth. Magical knowledge, mundane knowledge, you name it. If I was at home, I'd want to go wherever the Archive is hanging her hat at the moment, but we don't have that luxury here."

[slayers_desire]

"The Watcher library here is the closest we have... a lot of books and archives were lost to us... over the years." April frowns.

"Wolfram and Hart have a bigger library." Wes points out.

[thepizzalord]

Harry considers that. "Are they the kind of folks we want to say hello to?"

[slayers_desire]

"Not really. Last time... they tried to erase my existence."

[thepizzalord]

"Wouldn't be a good idea then, even if we could get away with it. Breaking in where you aren't wanted, opening a Way on hostile territory, is a great way to open a gateway to getting yourself killed. Any other candidates?" He's fairly certain that the Watcher library will do, if they have no better choices. But it's better to be thorough.

[slayers_desire]

"We could summon The Conduit... the connection to the Powers that Be..." Wes suggested.

[thepizzalord]

"The Conduit?" Harry repeats. "You wanna elaborate on that a bit?"

[slayers_desire]

"The Powers that Be can't be seen or heard by most people, because of their True Essence... so they once had a way to communicate with their heroes. First it was the Oracles. Then they were killed, so now it is the Conduit," Wes explains.

"It is like a fiery ball of knowledge..." Spike adds.

[thepizzalord]

That certainly has his attention. "That sounds as good as the Archive. Anyone know where to find this Conduit?"

[slayers_desire]

"Angel would know... he was the last to speak to her... him... it." Spike pulls out a cellphone.

[thepizzalord]

"Sounds perfect then." Harry wraps up the twine from the crystal and slips the entire thing into a little Ziplock baggie, to keep the coating fresh. "I'll need a compass. Got one of those in your magical back room?" he asks Wes.