[Mid-Manhattan Library, NYC] Good Life (Invite Only)

James was heading south down fifth avenue with Kingston when he felt it. There was a spark. Small. Almost not noticeable. He stopped at the foot of the stairway that lead past Patience and Fortitude into the New York Public Library. He glanced around, trying to figure out where the source of magic had been, and saw the smoke coming out of the library. He was uncertain if there was any connection between the two, but it felt likely. None of the people around him were even reacting to the smoke. He could feel them breathing down his neck. This was the most active they had been in a long time. The only way they could have been more present was if they were physically here, and that would have caused all sorts of issues. He was uncertain if reality would have been able to handle that much metaphysical power all in one place. New York City certainly would not have lasted long. Something had them riled up. Something big perhaps? He knew something was coming. Athena had made sure of that. What that was he was still figuring out. That was a mystery for another time though. He needed to deal with whatever was agitating them before New York City became a war zone as they threw around their power to solve whatever issue this was and inevitably grew angry with each other. They were like toddlers when it came to working together and sharing the spotlight. Thunder rumbled through the clear sky, causing him to smirk. It seemed they didn't like the comparison. Everyone's attention was now on the building. It seemed the smoke was real. Perhaps someone had woken up a dragon's egg, or was playing with a dangerous artifact. James hoped that neither of those were the case. Amateurs were dangerous enough without a dangerous artifact in their hand, and a ravenous baby dragon was not exactly a walk in the park either.

The possibilities didn't seem very exciting with the tendency for such dangerous things to show up in the hands of unsuspecting humans. It wasn't like he didn't think he could handle it. He certainly could easily handle it, but this was all rather inconvenient. James pushed his way through the crowd. Thankfully their attention was on the building, so they didn't notice his clothing changing into that of his more heroic persona. He didn't need these people and their camera phones recording him walking into a burning building. It would draw unwanted attention to him. Kingston followed behind him, panting softly in excitement. A concerned look crossed Kingston's face for a moment as people began to notice them. Someone called out something about the fire fighters already being on their way. Someone else called out something about how a dog shouldn't be going into a burning building. They were smart enough to at least not approach him. It seemed the porcelain mask was having the desired effect. James felt the power within Kingston grow as his familiar siphoned a bit of power from him. Kingston gave the crowd their answer by softly barking. Despite the softness of the bark, it seemed to echo much louder on a metaphysical level. Kingston's bark conveyed the danger the crowd was in just being this close to the building. Instinctively the crowd began to move back. James barely acknowledged them, his face remaining blank behind the mask. His eyes glanced toward his familiar, a simple thought passing from him to Kingston,"Good boy." He entered the building ignoring the people who were running out. With a simple gesture he created created a breeze that protected him from the smoke. He made his way toward the source. He understood why the gods had been so upset immediately as he saw the section of the mythology section on fire.

Faith was a complicated thing when it came to the gods. Few people believed in them any more, though with recent events that was changing. Faith wasn't just about belief though. Attention was just as important. Thinking about them. Sharing their stories. Those things were just as important. It wasn't as good as genuine acts of faith and sacrifice, but as long as there was someone who remembered the stories and who shared the stories it was practically impossible to kill them for good or even seal them away permanently. James eyes surveyed the situation, appraising every little detail. He noticed the panicking younger man. Everyone else was running. Behind the mask James's focused on the younger man, appraising Anwir. He didn't seem like a threat, but he was certainly an amateur. Anwir didn't seem to have any dangerous relics, so James was curious what he had done to cause this fire. It didn't seem intentional. Kingston let out a soft growl, focusing James's attention back. Dealing with the rapidly spreading fire would be difficult without knowing the cause of the fire. Anwir seemed to be glowing with a soft light in James's eyes. Behind the mask James's eyes shifted to Anwir's shadow, seeming to notice something before meeting Anwir's eyes and said,"Interesting. Show me exactly what you did to cause this fire." There was a hint of an accent in James's voice that wasn't entirely American. His  tone was surprisingly calm given the situation that they were in.

James's eyes barely watched what Anwir was doing, focusing instead on the spreading fire. He needed to know the origin of the magic used in creating the fire before he could deal with it. His eyes went back to the notepad, looking at the symbol he cursed under his breath,"Fucking wankers." He sighed and said,"You both did and didn't fuck up. That symbol isn't for scrying. A particularly petty vitki knew a rival of his was stealing his spells. He put that rune in his notes as a scrying rune, but its true purpose is to summon the Flames of Muspelheim to incinerate the person who uses it. Your modification is the only thing that saved your life." He sighed again. Without summoning Solomon's Ring, there was only one way to put this fire out that he could think of. No wonder the heat was so intense. If it wasn't for the basic enchantments he had in his clothes to keep himself comfortable, he didn't want to think about how much he would be sweating. He coughed as the smoke started to hit him. He needed to act quickly. He said,"Get behind me quickly." As if to add emphasis to his words, Kingston gave a soft bark before backing away from James. Behind the mask James's eyes closed. It seemed his priority was not to save lives, and if Anwir didn't move out of the way that was on Anwir for not doing so. There was a distinct crackle of power around him followed by the scent of ozone. James's fingers began to move in very specific patterns. The movements nearly seemed inhumane with the amount of flexibility his fingers seemed to posses and the rapid movement as they assumed new positions. His mind went to the memory of the rune that Anwir had shown him as he began to chant in Old Norse. The only words that Anwir might recognize was something that sounded like Niflheim and Hel.

As James opened his eyes, he was no longer in the library. Even though he wasn't physically there, the cold of Niflheim hit him immediately, sapping away at his very will to continue to exist. He chuckled to himself. It would have been so easy to just let go. He could feel Hel's gaze on him. He doubted she would care. What use did she have for him? He figured not much. He knew he couldn't just give in though. He had to much responsibility. His mind flashed back to Anwirs accent and the flames surrounding him. It brought back up the terrible memory of Aldo being trapped in the church where he burned alive. James steeled his will, opening his soul to the cold winds of Niflheim as he drew them into the very fabric of his existence. From Anwir's perspective nothing seemed to change at first as James stood there casting what was obviously as spell of some kind. That was until the temperature around James began to drop. Ice crystals began to form on James despite the presence of the flames. James's eyes opened as he took a deep breath and then blew out. A small fraction of the frigid winds of Niflheim coming into the material world to put out the flames of Muspelheim. Frigid winds was perhaps not even a good description of what Anwir saw. It almost looked like James was breathing out dry ice that immediately turned into a gas and quenched the flames. James coughed repeatedly as the spell seemed to come to an end. Finally he seemed to stop coughing as he moved his mask to the side slightly and spit out what looked like completely frozen blood. James turned his attention towards Anwir and said,"Experimenting with magic in a public place with civilians around was a real dumb move. Especially when you're going off the knowledge of people who don't know their ass from their own head when it comes to the occult."

James heard the rumbling of thunder. Their fear had subsided, but their anger had not. Death would be pleasant compared to some of the things he suspected they wanted to do Anwir. James's eyes studied Anwir as if he was looking through him and past him. At least the boy had the decency to acknowledge that he had fucked up. He doubted he would have done that at that age. Then again, he had been raised in this world with the knowledge that he had the power to warp reality to his whims and draw on incredible powers beyond mortal comprehension. The guy would develop an ego. It was the hallmark of a living Mage. Especially a newbie who had managed to not blow themselves up or draw on too much power. His mind easily brought up memories of having seen what happens when you drew on more power than you could handle. He sighed and said,"You really don't want to learn this." James noticed the library seeming to grow darker as shadows lengthening, but somehow growing brighter as well. For a brief moment he saw two men standing behind Anwir and immediately knew who they were. He sighed again and said,"Despite that. You won't be able to stop. You've tasted magic now. You might go a week or two, but you'll be right back in some forum trying to find your next scrap of knowledge, and next time you won't be so lucky." The rumbling thunder stopped at the brief appearance of the two men. It seemed Anwir was claimed. Why they had stepped in, James wasn't sure. He could only assume there was a connection between Anwir and them. James was glad the mask his his expression. James continued,"I'll teach you, or else you're going to get yourself and everyone around you killed or worse. Lesson one, almost anything you're going to find in a public library probably is fake or extremely dangerous and was dug up by people who don't know how dangerous what they're fucking with is. Lesson two, find your limits and know them well. This world you're entering is dangerous, and I'm not liable if you get yourself killed." That was a bit of a lie. He was incredibly liable if this guy died. He hadn't exactly read the Darkwatch membership guidelines, but he was sure they had something in there about not letting your apprentices get themselves killed or worse. He needed to put the fear of god into this guy though, or else he was bound to quickly get himself into those very situations before he even knew enough to at least protect himself and runaway.

James sighed, his mind slowly beginning the process of what to do next. It was just his luck that Baldur and Hodr had taken an interested in the guy. He would have to puzzle out what the meant later. Most likely it had something to do with magics the guys was connected to, but perhaps the connection ran deeper than that. This wouldn't be the first person to popup related to the gods. It was rarer nowadays, but demigods still existed. James didn't get the energy that the person before him was a demigod. James studied the area and was clearly about to speak when he froze. The air seemed to fill with the crackle of power, and James felt like a gun was getting pressed to the back of his head. He wasn't sure who was here, but one of his bosses had actually stepped foot in New York City. They were masking their presence so he doubted anyone else even knew they were here. He slowly turned south east. What was in that direction? There were to many possibilities to begin to even narrow it down. Things were about to get messy. Despite seeming to zone out and focus on something completely different, James's brain was trained to process multiple sensory inputs at once. If you wanted to call yourself a master of the arcane arts, you had to be able to do that or you couldn't maintain multiple spells at once. James studied the man before him for a moment and said,"Don't call me sir, that's weird. Call me James, and I said they're shit for learning magic. For practically everything else they're excellent sources of information, albeit terribly underfunded. I do have my own personal library, though it is not beginner friendly. It primarily deals with things you're not ready for. As for finding your limits, me and others can help with that. Unfortunately, there is another issue I need to go deal with."

The thing James left out about his library was that he also didn't trust this guy with access to it. This could all be an act to gain access to James's vault. He couldn't take any risks when it came to his vault. The defenses were good, but the human element was always a weakness to any security system. James reached into his coat, taking out a card. While it was originally blank, James flicked it and writing appeared on it. There were two addresses on it. The first was a dinner in the upper westside, while the other was instructions on how to access the Abbey. James handed it to him and said,"You have two options. You can come with me to somewhere that's potentially incredibly dangerous, or you can meet me at that first address tomorrow morning at nine. If you choose the second option and I don't show up, then follow the instructions to the Abbey. Someone there will be able to give you a decent education. If you're coming with me, then when I tell you to, join me in the circle." Time was of the essence, so James immediately went to work. Luck was perhaps on his side. He quickly went through the books, gathering some ash. It was the start of the connection to where he was trying to go. He began drawing glyphs on the floor with his finger using the ash. In his mind he began running through every circumstance he could think of that had any relevance to this spell. The closest body of water was the east river. The moon, while on the other side of the world, was currently a waxing gibbous. On top of that he had to factor in the position of the Pleiades and their current altitude. Then he began to factor in the ambient temperature, the dewpoint, time of day, and the direction they would be traveling. He had to be incredibly precise with this spell, or they could end up teleporting into the middle of the sea or arrive inside out. James was a man of many talents, but teleporting was one of the magics he did not excel at.

Finishing the sigils of the circle. James studied his work. It was a bit rushed, but it was good. The alternative was taking a subway or car, and there was no guarantee they'd get there before something bad happened. That feeling of a gun pressed to the back of his head had not waivered for a moment. He wasn't sure what that meant. Was it simply the amount of power a god radiated, or did it have something to do with the specific god that had come? James looked around the library. Everyone was still evacuated. With the presence of a masked vigilante, and the potential for a dangerous threat to be in the building the firefighters would still be holding off entering. That wouldn't last forever. The man was correct in thinking that he couldn't leave out the front door. He would have been immediately questioned. It would have been easy to assuage the mortal officers with a decent skill at lying. No one would have noticed who started the fire. James was curious why the man thought if he took his chances trying to hold up to questioning, that it meant he wouldn't get taught. It was a question for later. He couldn't take a risk showing up like this somewhere super public and drawing more attention to the God than the God was potentially already drawing to themselves. He took off the mask, letting his reality shift back to what it had been. There was an odd haze about the clothing he had been wearing as it shift back into his actual clothing. He looked less like a somewhat creepy modern day high priest of a cult, and more like a business man or a lawyer on his lunch break. James adjusted his navy blue suit coat, reaching into his pocket and pulled out what could only be described as a ceremonial knife. He studied the circle again and said,"This spell will take us to where we need to go. Magic has a price. Usually etheric energy, but often takes something a little extra to kick start the spell if its complex. Could be a blood red diamond, could be the blood of a unicorn, blood, or fulgurite, but the real price of magic is consequences. Having the power to access the cheat codes to reality and thus the ability to manipulate reality sounds like fun, but it means means you can affect the world around you in ways that a normal person could never dream of. The bigger the feat of magic, the bigger the splash your actions can have."

James paused for a brief moment letting the man digest what he had said,"I don't know why you didn't introduce yourself after I remembered to introduce myself, but it doesn't matter. Heat of the moment. The thing I need you to realize is this. Where we're going... There is going to be a god. Not the Christian God, I hope, but a God. Right out of the myths and legends that you've learned about in media and school. They're very real, and very dangerous. So if I say run. Run. Now I'm going to use my blood to form a connection between this circle and wherever they are in New York City. When my blood touches the ash, step into the circle." James pulled out piece of cloth with his free hand from the inside of his suit coat pocket, much like the knife. He handed the cloth to the man beside him. Once his hand was free he began to slowly make strange movements with his free hand, much like he had before except with only one hand this time. The movements of his fingers were deliberate in the almost inhuman way they moved, displaying a level of flexibility with the joints in his fingers and hand that could only come with years if not decades of practice. Finally James took the blade of knife, and slowly ran it down the palm of his free hand. The cut was superficial, but it was enough to immediately cause blood to begin to drip. He held out his hand over the circle, his hand forming a fist to keep the blood for immediately dripping. As he released his fist, the blood splattering onto the ash, he said,"Go," before stepping into the circle.