Saving Ivy

~Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden~

(Set after Death Masks)

If you try hard enough, that is if you don't look away and just concentrate, become a part of the world as just an observer, you can see Creation. At least, that is what old Ebenezer McCoy used to tell me when I couldn't wait something out. He would tell me to stop and look around, staying deadly quiet, to catch magic in the passing moments. It was all very philosophical and pretty and I, using my cynicism honed by a rocky adolescence, threw it out of hand. But sometimes, I would see my mentor doing it himself and there was a glint in his dark eyes that made me question myself – maybe he was right.

Remembering those times with him now, so far in the past, I sat at my desk in my basement apartment looking out the steel enforced door I had propped open. Flurries swirled by, some carried in with the crisp chilly wind of Chicago's winter. It was not yet noon, yet I already felt as if a week had passed since I'd woken up. I just couldn't seem to find the will to move. I needed a vacation badly: constant living from non-existing paycheck to paycheck, supernatural drama, and my own shoddy cooking was getting me down.

Days like today can force a man into reflection. Being a wizard and all that comes with it, I am predisposed to brooding. Occupational prerogative, as it were. I try to indulge as often as I can, and the last year has given me much to think about. Since an age ago, or five years, that I had set up shop, I have saved the world twice, started a war, fought fallen angels, excuse me that is a capital Fallen Angels, and numerous other exploits.

Where once the Doom of Damocles hung over my head, like it had over his head, now a sword from God hangs over my fireplace mantle. Life is equitable in funny ways.

I snorted at my own joke, and then cursed myself, remembering I was trying to stay still and look for magic in the falling snow. Hey, I had nothing better to do than wait for the weekend to end so I chose to do as Ebenezer always said: look around and find powers of creation. It was working about as well as it did when I was back on Ebenezer's farm and focused more on imagining the Midwestern girls in his village instead of magic.

I felt a whiff of something in the chilly wind coming through my door and realized someone of significant magical strength was near my home. My experiences of the last year had made me more paranoid and I quietly propelled myself off my easy chair to grab my blasting rod and .44 where they sat on my desk. I was fully dressed in my winter gear as I was planning on leaving for a walk as soon as I had gotten my wizardly brooding in.

I heard the car engine after I had already felt the aura of its driver. The tires came to a crunching halt on the street across from my door. Creaking sound of metal announced the car door opening and shutting. Then heavy boots plodded slowly but steadily to my own humble abode. Their rhythm was familiar and I arched a brow. Grinning, I jumped back to my chair and turned away from the door, grabbing a fat tome sitting on my desk.

He came to my doorstep where I heard him make a disgusted oath at the weather.

"Ebenezer McCoy," I called, still turned away from the door, using my best mysterious sage voice. I had recognized my mentor's walk as soon as I had heard it. I was also very impressed with myself for being lost in memory of my times under his tutelage, just on the day he was going to visit me unannounced. I love it when magic works its mysterious ways in my favor.

"Ho ho, you're too young to play those games with me, Hoss. Can I come in?" Ebenezer gave his typical short laugh, filling me with warmth. He was one of the few in the whole wide world who cared for me, and I loved the man like a father.

"Please, sir, come in," I said, coming around my desk. By all rights Ebenezer didn't need to ask my permission, but respectful manners were another thing the man didn't compromise on in my education. There is the practical side to it as well. If a wizard enters another's home without being welcomed, she or he leaves a great portion of their power at the threshold. In the times we were living, it would be foolish to put oneself at a disadvantage at any moment, even if it were just going to your former apprentice's basement bachelor pad.

Coming downstairs to me, he grabbed me by the shoulders looking me up and down; he had a lot of ground to cover as I was six foot six inches to his five foot five inches. But what the man lacked in height he made up in muscle and breadth. If you didn't know of the hardworking farmer's body underneath the flannel shirt and jeans he wore you would mistake him for a soft big man – and that mistake could prove to be your last. Ebenezer McCoy, besides having had the unfortunate responsibility of mentoring me, was one of the Senior Council, the most powerful of wizards on Earth. If you are not suitably impressed by the title, let me tell you this: despite being the least powerful of the Senior Council, last year he summoned a satellite from space to destroy a fortress of Red Court Vampires. I will give you a moment to wrap your head around that kind of power – I still haven't.

I met Ebenezer's dark eyes that looked happy to see me. I had no fear of looking him in the eye; he had seen my soul too many years ago for me to be afraid.

"It's good to see you, sir. Let me shut the door and get the fire going." I passed him to leap up the stairs.

"Oh? And why were you sitting here sulking in the cold?" Ebenezer asked, making himself home.

"I wasn't sulking, I was looking for Creation." I threw one hand in the air in a dramatic gesture. Ebenezer laughed deeply, a great belly laugh.

"But lad, you were so hopeless at it. Always fidgeting. But it will come to you, it will." He stared off into space a little, as I went to put logs in my fireplace. The expression on his face worried me; he was weighed down with something. He typically didn't ever get prophetic unless something was wrong.

"Coffee?" I offered, remembering too late I didn't have any.

"Water," Ebenezer asked for instead. That gave me pause, and he saw it. He was not the sort of man to turn down coffee, and wanting water meant he was here to see me on serious business. He saw my realization as clearly as I saw his purpose. We were old friends, though I would always call him sir.

"Sure," I said, somewhat less warmly than I wanted to.

I had had my fill of the kind of things that would have involved Ebenezer in the last few years. He was on a completely different level of playing field than me, and to be honest with myself, I wasn't ready to walk in circles where men like Ebenezer could sling orbiting bodies in outer space at each other; what did a wizard have to do to get a simple murder case or lost car keys? Oh the good old days.

I took longer than was needed in my kitchenette, pouring Ebenezer's drink, but when I went to sit across from him I was ready for my world to be turned upside down.

At least that is what I thought in my overconfidence.

"Hoss," Ebenezer began, settling deep in my two-seater Salvation Army special.

"Sir?"

"I am here to ask you to go on a mission I can't, and you and one other are the only ones who can go in my stead." He laid it on me heavy and fast. I would've asked him to explain, but old habits kicked in, and I dutifully stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

Which he did, "The mission is for the Senior Council. Although only a few even on the Council know about it, it is too secret and dangerous. So secret that I have been told to not let you know why you would be doing what you will be, if you agree."

"No, I won't agree to anything unless I know why," I firmly turned him down.

McCoy gave me a proud smile, throwing me off, before going on, "I know, lad, I know. That's why I already planned on breaking orders." He gave me a roguish grin from under his wispy white beard. "But that does not mean that you can ever let what I tell you slip your tongue. Not in your sleep, your dreams, or allow someone to tear it from you mind. I will tell you everything but you will have to promise me, Harry, promise me you will protect the knowledge at the cost of everything."

Ebenezer never called me 'Harry.' The last time he called me by my name was when I had a bag on my head, had my hands chained, and was kneeling in front of the Senior Council waiting to be beheaded. Ebenezer had saved my life that day. The memory made my throat tighten and a feeling of dread burst from the bottom of my stomach. I could only nod in answer to him. Luckily it was enough.

He took a drink of his water before turning his black serious eyes on me. "You have met The Archive. Do you understand what she is?"

"Ivy? Yeah. She carries around all of human knowledge in her head. Pretty powerful too from what I felt from her. Sweet girl, she likes Mister." I grinned.

"I heard you had named her. You have no idea how many people you pissed off for doing that." Ebenezer chuckled to himself, I arched a brow wondering why something like that could annoy anyone, but before I could ask, he started talking. "The Archive as you met her is incomplete. The knowledge she has is only four hundred and eighteen years old, or so. No one knows this but a handful, and it is kept that way. If someone finds out who isn't supposed to know, they don't stay alive long."

Ignoring McCoy's warning for a moment, I wondered how that was possible.

"But The Archive is the living collection of all human knowledge, not just the last four hundred years or so She's been collecting since she was created."

"Exactly. Ivy, the girl you met, is not the original Archive. That line was disrupted when its holder, fearing the madness that eventually comes to all of their line, threw an almighty magical wrench in the Archive enchantments surrounding her and…disappeared." Ebenezer blew air in a puff in imitation of a stage magician's disappearing act. Which is much more dramatic than what us Wizards do when we disappear.

"Just like that?" I asked.

"For the longest time, yes. We could not find any trace of what she had done, or what had happened. We only knew that she did it herself of her own will. She left behind the knowledge for mankind to create another Archive, and effectively told us to forget ever attempting to find her." McCoy sighed, rubbing his bald temples under which a ring of white hair still circled.

"But that means we've lost everything that Ivy doesn't know." It hit me and I felt my jaw drop as I stared at McCoy in shock. He took another sip of water, and he nodded gravely.

"This is why you can never tell anyone what you know. The Council created the new Archive and hid her away, not letting her be seen by anyone for enough years that those who knew the old one either died, or could be convinced that the new one was the old one's daughter. And so the secret was kept."

"So what now? I mean this is a deep dark secret that could have a lot of people in an uproar, and probably keeping some supernatural nasties in check since they think their weaknesses are known. But what do I have to do with it?"

"Some very select members of the Senior Council have worked for half a millennia in trying to find out what happened to the original Archive. She was different; she had years of mental disciplining. The original line did not go mad or burn out as quickly as the new line does, and we fear that the current Archive is too young and we might lose her before she is old enough to have a fully grown child to pass the responsibility on to. We stand to lose everything, again."

I had begun frowning and feeling very uneasy about the way Ebenezer explained things, it was as if he didn't realize Ivy was human. "What about Ivy? Is someone taking care of her, to make sure it doesn't get too much?"

"Lad, who do you think could even understand what it means to know everything. She is in her own care. The Archive is meant to be independent, so after recreating the new one over 400 years ago we bowed out. The Senior Council does what it can to make sure she is happy. But we need the old knowledge, the old line back, at worst to replace the current one, at best to teach her how to live with her burden. We are not inhumane, Hoss. We just have too many to care for." Ebenezer finished taking a deep breath and sinking further into my couch. I felt bad for letting him see what I was thinking, and felt sorry for him too.

As someone on the Senior Council he was responsible for protecting all mortals, and trust me there are many things out to get us.

"We have found her. At least we know where she went hundreds of years ago. We need someone to go and find her descendent and bring her back to us. Of the wizards in the White Council, there are only three who have an affinity for the kind of magicks that will be required. Myself, the Gatekeeper, and you."

"Me? I can't do magic like you or the Gatekeeper."

Ebenezer moved to the edge of the couch and gave me a very determined look. "Lad you are at the beginning of your magical development, you won't even begin to realize what's inside you until you hit your first one hundred years. But for someone like me, I can see many things. You can do this."

His words, like any wizard worth their weight, were cryptic. Joy. "What do you see?" I asked.

Ebenezer gave an annoyed harrumph, and slapped my arm like he would when I was younger and had doine something stupid.

"What's the mission?" he demanded.

"To find the old Archive's descendant and bring her back?" I answered uncertainly, feeling like I was an apprentice again.

"And how do you earn your living most of the time?"

"By solving cases, finding lost things, criminals, representing Sidhe Queens…oh!" I had a moment, so I forgot that tracking was one of my magical talents. So it has been a rough year. Leave me alone.

"You have a mind for investigation, a talent in finding what doesn't want to be found. You are gifted in combat magic, and lastly, you have survived creatures when you were a mere fifteen year old boy that grayed wizards are terrified of." Ebenezer gave me a meaningful look.

He was talking of the Outsider that my old master Justin had sent after me. Somehow I had defeated a creature that was meant to be immune to magic. I still have the legacy of the psychic and physical scars from that battle; I have little memory of it, but my body can tell you the story.

"You're going to make me blush. But I could've figured all that out. What is it that you see that I can't inside me?" I asked, because I was afraid of what was inside me.

There is a part of me that craved for blackness for wielding destruction, and enslaving every son-of-a-bitch that ever wronged me. When it comes down to it, I am really not a nice guy.

"In time, Hoss, in time. Don't force it. Magic is meant to come to you, and it will. But I see enough to know you will go into the true mysteries of creation."

"I understand," I said, surprised at myself for accepting it. Maybe I was maturing, who knew? But I had learned enough not to blindly try and chew off more than I can handle. When it comes to magic and what it means to me, Ebenezer is the only man I trust, and so I did.

"So where did the original Archive go?" I asked, changing the subject.

Ebenezer gave me a toothy smile and, dare I say, there was mischief in his eyes. Shit.

"She went to a parallel reality to ours, an alternate dimension."

"You mean the Nevernever?" I asked, a little disappointed by the lack of pay off to the lead up.

"No. Much further than the Nevernever. Somewhere the Nevernever doesn't share a wall with mortal reality. From what we can tell it is a place where the Nevernever and mortal world are really just one; it is a place beyond our world's Gates."

I simply stared at my mentor. What I was always taught was that beyond Reality's Gates is the Outside, or the Void, which is nothingness. That is all. To find out that there is a reality outside of our own – well its probably like finding out about aliens.

Speaking of which, "So they have flying saucers, and have been sexually abusing abducted mortals from our reality. E.T. was no joke?"

Ebenezer laughed. "No. We expect the reality to be close to ours. Otherwise Elodie Anastasia wouldn't have chosen it to escape to."

"Elodie Anastasia? The last of the original Archive's line?"

"Yes, everything I have read of her says she was very powerful, and the most willful of the Archives."

"I don't understand. Why would she run away to another reality? That wouldn't stop her from being the Archive?" I asked.

"It would. She would know all that she has known till she left, but there would be no new knowledge, the Archive as a magic is tied to our reality. Take her away from her realm, and she would be a normal woman. I don't blame her for wanting that: I would do the same." Ebenezer nodded to himself gravely, and like him I couldn't blame her either. Several thousands years of knowledge, and more added every second. What kind of a life would that be?

I had thought of that a lot since I met Ivy, but my heart broke from pity for her, and I had to stop thinking. She looked fairly normal, and I hoped she had a way of dealing with her "ability."

"So I will find my evil twin in this other reality?" I asked.

"We don't know," Ebenezer shrugged. "Anything is possible. But we think that it would be far enough from our reality so that Elodie wouldn't be recognized for what she was, but similar enough so that she could lead a life that felt familiar to her. I don't think anyone would want to go to a world where chimpanzees talk and humans are animals." He winked at me.

"You knew what I was thinking!" I grinned, finding comfort in Ebenezer's knowledge of my habit of dumbing down the situation until I could deal with it.

We sat quietly for a while, but I did notice Ebenezer look at his watch several times. Maybe there was a deadline. I didn't ask.

"Sir? How likely is it Ivy…that she won't survive?"

"It's a miracle she has survived this long, Hoss. If the Senior Council hadn't tied my hands I would be in the parallel reality now. I will not fail a child, never again." Ebenezer swore the last under his breath.

I felt a shiver at his words, and wondered what regret he had remembered. But seeing the darkness of it on his face I knew I didn't want to be the one mirroring him someday, wondering if turning down Ebenezer like I wanted to had meant Ivy's death.

"I'll do it." I said, not looking at him, trying to find courage.

I felt his powerful earth working hand on my shoulder and looked at him to find a somber but proud face. I didn't think I deserved it.

Something occurred to me. "Sir, the Senior Council hates me. They wouldn't trust me with this."

Ebenezer gave me a wicked smile. "Oh they don't. They agreed because they think you won't live through it. The Merlin has high hopes for that."

"Thanks for telling me that," I said in mock gratitude. Ebenezer thumped my shoulder.

"Good, now you know I think you can do it. So don't doubt yourself. No part-time apprentice of mine will give The Merlin moral satisfaction. Let's go." With those strangely comforting words he made for my door.

"What? Now?" I demanded.

"Hoss, stars are aligned, someone is going through today. It is either you or no one. I'm going to park the truck next to your door, throw in everything you need. You might be gone for years."

"Years!"

"No time. Get going, boy!"

"Sir," I mumbled and ran from bedroom to kitchenette to bookshelves, thinking of what I needed to survive for years.

Ebenezer's old Ford truck had filled up fairly quickly. Before long, he started throwing things back out. He chucked all of my books, with a couple of exceptions, back into my apartment, telling me that the Senior Council will provide any reading material I needed for my flight in the flying saucer. Just my luck, he has a sense of humor. Sometimes I wonder if that is the reason the council saddled him with me.

Bob the skull was in my deep long coat pocket. He had kept quiet after I told him that the Senior Council was raiding my place and I was trying to hide him. Bob's sense of self preservation is even stronger than his perversion, and that is saying something. Just as I was about to leave my apartment to join Ebenezer in his truck I saw Shiro's sword hanging on my fireplace mantle. He had entrusted me with it and I didn't feel right leaving it behind, so I slung that over my shoulder too.

Slamming the truck door twice by habit, knowing it wouldn't lock on the first try, I took a fortifying breath. Ebenezer had me running and I hadn't even a moment to think. But I did once he started driving and I had questions.

"Sir, I have to pay rent on my apartment and office. Someone has to feed my cat and dog. My friends need to know where I am, I can't be gone for years." I began to panic a little, which I hadn't done when I was too busy packing.

The truck fishtailed a little as Ebenezer cut the corners too sharply; in the snow it was a very bad idea. Like I had guessed, there was a dead line.

"The Senior Council will take over your bills. But you should be back as soon as you're gone, you have to be or else you might fail your mission. When you come back to our reality, you have to come back the same day you left. You understand?"

"No, how will I come back to our reality, and exactly this time? Can you slow down?"

"No time, Hoss. I wasn't going to rush your decision, but now we can't waste time anymore. We will give you books, notes, secret scrolls, things you need to know. While in the other reality you will have to learn everything we give you. From here you will have the Gatekeeper sending you to the parallel reality, but from there you will have to be your own Gatekeeper and come back. You will also have to travel time if you're off your mark and come back to this day, do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand. Opening the Gates and swimming against time are forbidden, against the seven laws of magic!"

"While on this mission you are free to break all seven laws. Your objective is to find the original Archive's descendent, follow her, and protect her. Learn the magic we tell you to, and then open a way back, bringing her with you. No matter how many years it takes, or what stands in your way. That is your mission. I trust you, I know you. You are a good man. You will not break the laws unnecessarily. But I warn you, stay away from the black. You are too close to it. The Council won't punish you for using it in the parallel reality, but you might lose yourself if you do. Understand?"

"Yes, sir," I said quietly, as I contemplated him in one moment destroying all my conceptions of Council Law. If it suited them they could just wave it aside, even for me.

A slow smile crept over my face. I could live with it. They might be hypocrites but I was free from their laws. My initial worries laid to rest I began to get excited about the idea. As frightening going to a whole different reality was, the chance to learn something completely new, and have the Senior Council's magical secrets handed to me on a silver platter made me almost salivate. And to think I could spend years there and come back to my apartment as if I'd left only hours ago. Pretty nifty. Almost too convenient. I frowned, curbing my own enthusiasm.

Ebenezer slid and over-sped through Chicago's streets as I shut my eyes to prepare myself mentally. Damn, I was gonna miss Murphy, Mouse, and Mister.

Somewhere along the way I started chuckling to myself; the Senior Council was going to pay my bills. No one had seen that coming.

We came to a screeching halt in front of an old and abandoned middle school building. I had to put my hand on the dashboard to keep from smacking into it. Ebenezer jumped from his side as if he was a teenager and not pushing two hundred-something. Ah! Healthy farm living, I had to try it sometime. But then there was Burger King. Lost battle, I thought to myself, getting out of the truck.

It was a gray building with narrow windows running down evenly on its three floors, many of them broken. Spray paint announced local gangs, musicians, and other slogans. No one had shoveled the walkways and all the snow from the season was piled on the grounds and stairs. I followed in Ebenezer's footsteps up to the main doors. One was slightly ajar and we pushed through it to come into an unlit corridor that looked like it ran the length of the building.

Inside the building seemed to have survived its abandonment better. Besides dusk and some broken into classrooms, it was useable. Ebenezer led into what must've been the teacher's lounge: it had nicer chairs and a stove in the corner. Looking completely out of place, The Gatekeeper, Ancient Mai, LaFortier, and Martha Liberty stood in their black robes and purple stoles.

"You have agreed?" LaFortier asked.

"He has," Ebenezer answered the tall French wizard of the Senior Council.

"I have," I added because LaFortier kept looking at me.

"Good." He nodded and the bright florescent light seemed to make his deep set eyes look that much stranger.

Ancient Mai, by her name supposedly the oldest of wizards, walked to me. She was a short woman of vaguely Asian features, I couldn't tell exactly which country she was from. It probably had to do with how her gray hair didn't match the wrinkle-free face that somehow still managed to look old, and her eyes were just watery and piercing enough to make you feel creeped out.

"Harry Dresden," she greeted me in a creaking voice, betraying her age. "We commit you to a mission of grave importance to humanity. Do you understand that you must succeed and that you will probably die?"

The lady does not mince her words, at least she wasn't going to lie to me about her expectation of me. But I was resolved and told her so, "I know, Ancient Mai, I am prepared for it. Ivy is important to me, I'll do everything I can."

She looked up in my face for a while, not really meeting my eyes, wizards tend not to meet each others eyes. A soul gaze is too intimate an experience. But she still managed to look at me as if she could see deep inside me.

"You will die for the girl," she said, it wasn't a question, or a prediction. To her it was a fact.

"If that is what is meant to happen. Look, are you trying to scare me away?" I lost my temper a little.

"He is ready," Ancient Mai announced without answering my question and went to a dilapidated seat to unfold something that was wrapped in cloth. I didn't get to see because Martha Liberty, the one wizardess on the Senior Council taller than even me, took my attention.

She came to me with LaFortier in tow. In her hand was a midnight colored staff that didn't look like it was the wood's natural color. LaFortier had a black cloak in his hands.

Martha Liberty was a very hard woman: her frame, expression, the way she moved, everything screamed iron will. She looked me up and down with a strict school teacher regard.

"In the past, when someone has perverted our seven laws against us, so that we could not pursue them openly, we have chosen someone to ensure that the warlock found justice. It is a secret, highly trusted, and very dangerous position, Dresden. Based on your actions in the affair of the Sidhe war, we are bestowing this position on you." As she finished her speech she motioned to LaFortier, who came around and draped the large black cloak over me, raising its hood so it fell over my head. I adjusted it so I could see him and Martha Liberty.

The tall dark woman held out the staff in her hands like it was a sword. With a lot of trepidation I took it from her, bowing a little because it seemed appropriate. The sigils on the staff glowed silver at my touch and I felt a connection, not as good as my own staff since I hadn't crafted this one. But it felt as if the staff had a power of its own.

"From this day hence you will be known to us as the Blackstaff. Do not mistake its name for evil. It is given for one who moves in shadows to do righteous work for the council." The Gatekeeper was suddenly beside me, I don't know how he saw the expression on my face that must've told him how I felt like being called "The Blackstaff"

"With the station comes the right to break any of the seven laws. Be careful and break them only when it is absolutely necessary to your mission. There is one other Blackstaff and he is much more powerful than you. If you betray our trust there will be no trial, no defense, he will come for you in broad daylight or quiet of the night and you will be no more. Congratulations, for it is a great honor to be trusted this much." He smiled at me, and even I could tell it was ironical.

"I think you're just desperate, but thank you." I wanted to put down the black staff in my hand, so I wasn't touching it anymore.

LaFortier took off the cloak and hood he had given me, and took the staff from my hand. I looked at him askance.

"Traditions must be observed, a proper ceremony so you understood that it means something to us to make you a Blackstaff. We have followed tradition, so no further need for you to be wearing the cloak of your office.

"If you are ever caught by the wardens and brought to the Senior Council, show them this staff. It signifies your position, and even if you have traveled time so far that none on the council recognize you, they will know your authority by the staff and treat you as their agent. This is extremely important, Dresden. We don't want one of our own to kill you by accident, your mission is too important," LaFortier explained.

I nodded understanding the implications and practical reasons. They were doing everything they could to make sure I made it, as the retrieval of the Archive was much more important than how trustworthy they thought I was. The Gatekeeper wouldn't have mentioned the other Blackstaff if he thought I could be completely fair and just.

"He won't let us down," Ebenezer voiced his opinion, putting his hand on my shoulder, like a father protecting his son. As a grown man it is uncomfortable to have someone do that for you, but knowing that everyone in that room was my senior easily by a hundred years, I understood why Ebenezer might treat me like a child. I accepted it with grace.

Ancient Mai had prepared whatever was in the folded cloth and brought over a goblet of steaming potion.

"What's this?" I asked suspiciously. It smelled foul.

"A potion based in dragon blood. You are too tall, dark, and dangerous looking. You might need to blend with the new people you will meet. You must look innocuous. The potion has transformative power. Made by Listens-to-Winds and myself. When you get close to the woman you're there for, the potion will speak to nature and find the safest appearance for you to be and change you into it," she paused for a moment, as if weighing if she should say what she did next, "Be prepared for it could change you into a woman-"

"A woman?" I demanded. "Not drinking it."

"It isn't permanent." She glared at me repressively. "You can be changed back when you return. But it is a powerful enchantment. You must not frighten her. Drink!" the small woman ordered, thrusting the potion up to me. I looked around for help but they all expected the same for me.

Well if I could risk death, I could risk becoming a woman. I drank the smelly liquid in one go, it tasted like blood and crushed bark. My eyes watered but I kept it down. The potion burned through me like a spicy drink bubbling in my stomach.

I sat down in one of the moth ridden seats that sank under my weight. The potion was making me feel strange. No one found this odd and went about their business. My things were brought in, I could see my staff, blasting rod, Shiro's sword, and my own sword added to the weaponry with the black staff I was given by the council.

They had a large trunk like box in which they were placing things. I saw them put rolls of scrolls, some very old looking tomes, some very new note books and diaries. And a few magical tools that I couldn't guess the purpose of without looking at them more in depth. LaFortier broke off from them and sat across from me. The man had never liked me but seemed to have put that aside for today.

He handed me a small glass ball that fit inside my closed fist. I could sense the magic in the runes marked on it, but waited for him to enlighten me.

"The woman you are looking for is special and the magic surrounding her distinct. If one knows what to look for they can find her fairly easily, as long as she doesn't know she is being tracked. This device will lead you to her and when it has reached her it will pulse three times and then quiet, until you need of it again. Keep it on your person." He wearily leaned back in the red cushioned chair and took a moment's rest.

"Thanks. Tough day for you?" I asked.

"You cannot begin to imagine what it has taken us to get here, Dresden. Whatever our differences in the past, and my lack of faith in you even now, I wish you good luck more sincerely than I have ever. You must succeed no matter the consequences!" There was an intensity that shone from his deep eyes, making me very wary of him; but I also understood the magnitude of what finding the original Archive meant to my world.

LaFortier was one of those who were in favor of my execution, and also in favor of giving me over to the Red Court vampires. If he was willing to help me then I was part of something much bigger than both of us. It should have been obvious to me, but in the rush I lost sight of the big picture.

For me, saving Ivy was enough.

"There is some gold, a little silver, and a few gems in the trunk. We can't hope to know what type of money they use, if they even have the concept of money. But hoping that they are human, and all humans are attracted to glittering objects, you should be able to exchange them for your needs. There is not much by our standards, but it is all we can spare. Now go to the Gatekeeper, he will walk you to the Gates. Farewell, Blackstaff Dresden."

"Goodbye, LaFortier."

I got up to see the Gatekeeper waiting by the door for me, the rest of the Council was looking to me as well. I nodded vaguely in their direction, and cracked my neck and hands as if I was getting ready for a fight. Best I knew, I could have been. "Alright, let's do the time warp again."

I grinned at them but they didn't get the Rocky Horror Picture Show reference. Their loss.

Ebenezer shook his head at me in indulgent exasperation; he knew what I was talking about. With his staff he motioned me to go on. I stopped by him once and he took me in a hug, and without any shame I hugged him back. We said no words to each other. Nothing needed to be said. He was the only man who truly had faith in me, and I wasn't going to let him down.

Following the Gatekeeper outside the teacher's lounge I saw the trunk they were preparing for me sitting in the middle of the hallway. The Gatekeeper shut the door behind him, leaving us alone in the corridor. He was the most mysterious of all the Senior Council and thought to be nearly equal to The Merlin in power. Not a wizard to be trifled by any measure. His hood always covered him; one could only see the end of his short-clipped beard or sometimes if the light was just right his glittering brown eyes.

"Wood from the Nevernever makes your luggage. It is light and sturdy. It will only open for the Senior Council and the Blackstaff. The secrets in your mind and in the trunk must never be revealed, destroy both if you fear they will be stolen," he ordered in his accent rich voice.

"Sure thing, a week's dose of daytime TV and my brain will be mush. Don't worry, Gatekeeper, there is subtle and deep magic in reruns." I bowed respectfully to the man who could crush me with one gesture of his hand. Luckily it amused him enough to make him laugh.

"Then it is time, Blackstaff Dresden."

"Wait. I wanted to ask. This Blackstaff business, it is a good thing, right? You wouldn't be setting me up for anything would you?"

"My young wizardling, you are our officially sanctioned vigilante, working under direct auspices of the Senior Council. Do you think it's a good thing?" The Gatekeeper chucked sardonically.

"I think I'm screwed," I blurted.

"Astute for one so young. You may survive this crucible, after all. Now sit on your trunk."

I did as he told me to, picking up the black staff of my new position and putting it across my knees.

"Now look at the palm of my hand," he ordered as he thrust his hand in my face.

Okay? But I did it anyway. In his rough, browned with age palm there was a shining white rectangle of white. I looked hard and it looked like a door propped open, spilling out blinding light.

"Gatekeeper, there is a door inside your hand."

"Yes, now walk through it."

"Walk through it?" I demanded looking up at him. His other hand came down on my head and forced me to look straight at his palm.

"The Gates are connected to me, Dresden. Reality is in the mind. See yourself walking through with your staff and luggage. There is little time for disbelief. Go!" He said the last with a lot of magical power.

I felt like his voice pushed me forward. My nose touched the shining door in his palm, and suddenly I was through it in a world of light so bright it tore at my eyes.

When the light dimmed and I realized I had shoved my palms in my eyes I relaxed. Slowly taking my hands away from my face, I breathed to calm my racing heart. My skin felt raw and I was sweating so much it felt like I had stepped out of an oven.

I made sure the trunk was still under me, it was. The black staff was across my knees. And all of us together were in the middle of what I had to guess was a soccer field. It was also blissfully night; I didn't think I could've handled the sun for a while.

Something moved in my pocket and peaked out. Startled, I slapped at it, thinking some creepy crawly had made its way on me. It dodged my hand and flew up in my face. It was the glass ball LaFortier had given me. It floated away from me; I suppose it had started its work.

"You want to tell me something, Lassie?" I asked.

The ball bobbed once.

"Jimmy fell in the abandoned well on the south side behind the railway tracks?"

The ball stopped bobbing. There was a moment of intense silence. The ball pierced me with its eyeless stare, and then the little bastard flew off.

"Hey!"

I ran after it. Tripping over my exhausted legs I came to a crashing halt. It helped to remind me I couldn't leave the trunk behind. The glass ball came back and hovered over my face while I lay on the field.

"You did that on purpose." I scowled at the glass ball. It bobbed in the air. "Lucy, you have some splainin' to do." I kept on with the reruns theme. I did promise the Gatekeeper after all. The ball flew off again.

"Damn you, let me get my things!" I shouted after it, and saw its shape almost lost in the darkness, wait for me at the white lined edge of the soccer field.

I trudged back to the trunk, stretching my legs a little, doing a couple of lunges to get rid of the intense weariness that had come over me. I came to the problem of how I was going to carry a trunk nearly as long as I was tall. That is when I noticed the criss-crossed harness attached to the bottom of the trunk.

They expected me to put a wooden trunk on my back like it was a school bag. The Senior Council was odd. I stood the trunk on its narrow end and slipped my arms through the harness, hefting it. I nearly fell, overcompensating for the weight. Wood from the Nevernever must have been very light, I hardly felt anything.

With my special vigilante edition staff and a trunk on my back, I was ready to track the Archive. It was a good thing I was too; LaFortier's ball was getting testy.

Ah! At least inter-reality travel did nothing to dampen my good sense of humor.

"Lead on, Lassie!" I lifted my staff overhead and embarked on the journey. Lassie didn't wait and shot off making me jog after it.

Beyond the field were houses. It looked like I was in a park in the middle of a suburb somewhere. It was not the best place for a staff wielding wizard to be inconspicuous in. My best hope was that the cover of night would keep most residents of wherever I was indoors. Passing a street sign I was relieved to see it was in English. So far so good. It would have been a real problem if it was Klingon.

LaFortier's ball, who liked being called Lassie, kept a steady pace through the suburban streets. I was ready to cast my best veil, but veils not being my specialty I didn't want to take the time to concentrate. I might need my reserves later. Fighting with magic when your body is tired is the same as fighting physically when you're not in top shape; a bad idea.

A small two door rolled around the corner, the middle aged couple in it stared at me unabashedly. Returning the favor I waved at them jovially and kept up my light jog. I saw the woman bring a cell phone to her ear as she craned around in her seat to keep looking at me.

Great, I had run into a concerned citizen. They are so annoying; much like the kids going door to door trying to save your soul. They are so well meaning you can't resist crushing them with a conjured sledgehammer.

I picked up my pace. "Let's go Lassie, Toto is on to us."

It did occur to me that Lassie could be following someone across the world from me. Did it actually have any understanding of distances or was I going to be running for weeks, months, years, before it led me to the Archive's descendant? For the moment it didn't matter, I needed to make myself scarce fast. Hopefully the lady in the car was calling her best friend to gossip about the weirdo she saw and not the police.

After thirty minutes or so of jogging and running I dropped my pace to a fast walk. Somehow Lassie forgave me and closed the distance between us to fly slower than it was before. I looked around more curiously but just found neat houses with neat gardens, it was all very familiar. I was disappointed. It was another reality and they still had two-door garages and tiny sedans that I would have trouble getting into.

I shouldn't have been too disappointed. Ebenezer did say that Elodie Anastasia would have picked a reality similar enough to ours for comfort and different enough so that she wasn't the active Archive anymore.

I didn't have a watch but I could tell several hours had passed and night was soon going to give way to day. Sunrise is a magical moment, and I don't mean that in the cliché romantic way; it truly has power. Many spells cast during the night will dissipate once sunlight hits the earth. A lot of monsters won't show their face in daylight either.

It also meant that someone resembling myself would stick out like a sore thumb during the day. I began to understand what Ancient Mai had meant about me, "too tall, too dark, too dangerous looking," she had said. Well, it did get me the ladies, something to be said for that.

The glass ball began to slow down and I matched its speed. We were passing another small park; just a little place with a see-saw and a merry-go-round. I read the sign to find we were on the end of Wisteria Walk. Wherever that was. LaFortier's ball hadn't been too particular about following streets. It had cut through wherever it felt like; leaving me to do most of the work of taking the long way around, or risking dog bites while slinking through people's lawns. So I was glad to see that Lassie had decided to take a sedate and reasonable path that followed Wisteria Walk.

I should have been more aware of my surroundings, but I just couldn't care. I was shaking from exhaustion, my clothes were too warm for the summer weather I had landed into, I had run for hours, and had whatever else toll the inter-reality travel had taken. I dearly wanted to go back to the small park and find a bench to lie down on.

I was just about to turn back when my hung head hit the surprisingly heavy glass ball mid air. It had stopped.
I looked around to find rows upon rows of duplicate two story houses, many with very nice gardens. Everything was clean, in place, and bright. They just had to have street lights. I saw my long shadow cast away from the light pole I was standing by. I didn't want to stay long, in case someone looked out their window and saw a city boy like me who had no business stalking quaint suburbia at the wee hours of night.

LaFortier's ball, Lassie, had different ideas. It bobbed in the air in front of me and then almost hesitantly floated to the house across from the light pole. The letter box on the side walk proudly said "No. 4 Privet Dr." in cursive. The ball went and dropped itself by the door, trying to get through the sliver of space under it. It couldn't get through.

"Damn, it found her already? Hey, come back, I can't follow you in there," I tried to shout while whispering, which makes it just sound like you're hoarse. "Hey!"

The ball didn't mind me any. Frustrated I slipped my hand in my leather long coat and felt the skull that was in there. I shook it. "Bob, wake up. Now."

"I am up, Harry. You told me it was a White Council raid, and look we're in a new world. Let me out, I want to see," Bob, the air spirit who lived in the skull, begged.

"Exactly what I want. Leave your skull and follow that cursed ball, see who it is going to. Quick, it's slipping through the mail slot!" I forgot to whisper and shouted. Bob's orange light disappeared from the skull in my pocket. I saw a hazy distortion in the air for a second and then it was gone.

The sky was getting lighter and I wanted to be out of sight soon. Putting down my burden, I sat on the trunk, letting my long legs spread out. I felt aches in my tense muscles and stretched them to pass the time.

Just as I was about to summon my will to veil myself I felt a brush of air on my hand that preceded Bob's voice coming from my pocket. I dipped inside and brought him out; the orange light was back in the skull. Bob whistled through his lipless grinning teeth.

"You won't believe what I found, Harry. The woman likes some sick toys. Not that I don't understand. Who would want to sleep with a scare crow like her? There is the fat husband of hers, miracle they spawned the beached whale in-"

"Bob," I interrupted. "Did you find the woman that glass ball went to?"

"Oh! That. Yes. Went to a boy locked in a cupboard. Squeezed itself through a crack in the door and sat on him, pulsing like a beacon three times. It woke the kid up. He's playing with it now. That tracking ball LaFortier gave you glows when he touches it. Nice trick," Bob commented.

"No, Bob. The ball had to go to a woman, or a girl, definitely female. Are you sure it's a boy?"

"I'm an air spirit of knowledge. I know a male human when I see one. It's a boy and he has magic to boot. Don't know why he's staying in a locked cupboard though. Quirky reality they have here, eh?"

"The ball didn't go to anyone before him? It went straight to him and lit up three times?" I demanded.

It made no sense. The Archive passed from mother to daughter. Things had really messed up if it was passed on to a boy.

"Yes, yes. You are a grouch in the morning. Go to bed, get some caffeine, rub one out, do something, Harry." Bob groused at me.

He was an amazing source of knowledge but didn't always understand implications of what he knew, and so couldn't understand why my head was spinning.

"Bob I have to see this myself. Go ahead of me and warn me if anyone wakes up."

"Righto, Boss. Be careful with casting any spells, Harry, there is a really powerful ward on the house," Bob warned me.

"How powerful, what does it do?" I asked.

"Don't know what it does, but it is old, we're talking ancient magic here. Just don't be yourself and you'll be okay."

"Gee, thanks."

Energized by finding the Archive's descendent and the mystery it presented in possibly being a boy, I lost my weariness. Using the boost of excitement I summoned my will and with nonsensical words to wrap around it, cast the best veil I could over myself.

Picking up the light trunk I propped it next to the garage and went around the house. There was a side door that led into a sunroom and rest of the house. Following Bob's advice I didn't use magic to unlock the door but picked it the traditional way. Luckily there wasn't an alarm system connected.

I crept inside and immediately felt my power cut to a third. I had crossed the threshold of the house without being invited in. The veil became a lot harder to hold but I had to see the Archive's descendant without letting them see me.

A thought brought me to a halt mid step. If the original Archive was truly here, they would be able to sense me; just like I had sensed Ivy when she first came to visit me. I cursed at myself for rushing in.

But then it occurred to me that I wouldn't have been able to enter Archive's home if she or he were aware of me. So I walked without making a sound through the sun room into the kitchen, passing by the living room, looking for a cupboard. I saw a flash of light and followed it. There, under the stairs leading up to the second level and most likely bedrooms, was a small storage place. There was a grill in it, had a lock on the door, which itself was cracked a little at the bottom. The light flashed again and I saw it through the grill.

My boots thumped on the wooden floor of the hallway leading to the storage space or cupboard like Bob had called it. I stopped to take them off before padding ahead in my socks. I bent my tall frame to look through the grill to find a little boy holding LaFortier's ball which glowed every now and then for him.

In the light from the ball I saw a strange jagged scar on his head and very bright green eyes. Finally I felt it, the presence of magical power. It was subdued; I couldn't get a measure of it to tell how powerful he was. I guessed he wasn't even an apprentice yet and didn't know of his abilities.

Of course most wizards started showing signs only at puberty. I, on the other hand, had been aware of my abilities and trained them from long before that time. In that respect Ivy was like me. Which led me to believe that if the boy locked in the cupboard was aware of the Archive in him, he would have been like Ivy; that is, a ten year old super weapon.

I crept backwards from the grill in deep thought. I had found the descendant, who unlike the Senior Council's expectation was one, a boy, two, not aware he was the archive. Crap.

I picked my boots on the way, while wondering why he was locked in a storage closet. It was time for a little investigation. I stepped into the living room, which was crawling with pictures of a fat boy, a fat man with a big moustache, and an unattractive thin woman. I didn't see the green-eyed boy's pictures anywhere. The house was nice, clean, and well kept. It didn't overtly show any signs of an abusive household.

But then again bad things don't happen only in bad looking places. I knew better.

Bob had warned me to not to do magic, otherwise I would have reached out to find echoes of any powerful emotions. Abuse usually leaves behind a trace. As I walked through the house it became difficult for me to ignore the pit of anger that was slowly growing inside me. I kept reminding myself that I was in a different reality, I didn't know the situation. But it is damned hard when evidence of neglect is looking at you straight in the face.

And not to mention what I was there for. I was supposed to kidnap the imprisoned boy and bring him to a parallel reality from his, where his mind would go into over drive and become a repository for all human knowledge. And somewhere on the way I had to convince him to teach Ivy how to handle being an Archive. Just peachy.

I knew I was being suckered into the Blackstaff schtick. At least I had time. I would need to learn everything the Gatekeeper knew of swimming against time, and travelling realities. That kind of magic was far beyond me, I was looking at a lot of time spent in this new reality.

Suddenly I felt the potion Ancient Mai had given me bubbling in my stomach.
Hells Bells! It was going to start working while I was inside the Archive's magically warded house. I had to get out.

I ran over the carpeted floors not stopping to put on my boots and was out the sunroom door in seconds. Tired as I was, the risk of being fried by ancient magical wards was enough motivation to not dilly dally.

Bob piped up as soon as I left the house and grabbed the trunk.

"Told you he was a boy. Where's the fire?" his voice came muffled from inside my jacket pocket.

"I'm changing, Bob. Ancient Mai gave me a potion-"

"To turn you into a woman or something not as intimidating as you look. I'm telling you now, your face with breasts will do nothing for me."

"Oh shut up." I snapped, running full tilt. I really, really, really, didn't want to turn into a harmless looking woman. I'm pretty old fashioned, but even I know that there are many innocent looking women who can break me over their knees. My Faery Godmother being one of them. Though "innocent" isn't a word I'd use to describe her.

I was getting scatter brained from the exhaustion, using magic in my tired state, and whatever the hell the transformation potion was doing to me.

"You're not looking too good. Face is puffing out, hair is getting longer. I think you're getting shorter too. I can't see breasts yet," Bob gave me his running commentary as I reached the small park I'd walked by earlier.

I shoved the trunk under some bushes and crawled as far as I could under their cover too, and gave into the magic.

"Bob, I'm gonna pass out. Go back to that house and watch that boy, come back at lunch time. Don't let him out of your sight." I let myself fall asleep; I just couldn't hold it back anymore.