Page 29 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

I smiled. My brilliant, worrisome little mage didn’t require a rescue. Had I not dropped in, I believe he’d have ended that damned fairy on his own. Wally was simply perfect.

“Oh no,” Wally said, running his fingers along a melted bookshelf. “I think the smog I released destroyed some of the artifacts.”

My fingertips tingled.

“Don’t touch it.” I swatted his hand with a tail. “Could still be caustic.”

“Doubtful. Goblin smog has a very short half-life.” He frowned, gesturing at a pile of liquified metal. “Potent stuff, though. Melted a full suit down.”

“That’s not nearly enough metal to make a suit of armor.”

“Maybe some trickled down into the labyrinth.” He shrugged. “It’s not like it got up and walked away.”

“Ooooo, gorgon eyes.” I looked at the tasty pair displayed on a shelf. “Think they’re still fresh?”

I reached out to pluck one of the succulent optic nerves out of the glass container and into my belly.

“No.” Wally popped my hand. “We don’t have time for your funny business.”

“I was gonna eat them, not screw them.” I pouted. “I reserve all the funny business for you.”

He rolled his eyes and rested them on the nearby door where the aroma of magic permeated from behind, thick and intoxicating in the air.

“This way,” I said, leading us through the door and down a long hallway toward an iron door where the bulk of power radiating inside this manner stemmed. “This is the central source of power.”

Wally adjusted his glasses, scanning the symbols lining this door like they seemed to do for all here. “You sure?”

“Yes.” I grabbed the handle, which wouldn’t turn. “Looks like it’s locked, but that’s no problem.”

I coated my hand in Diabolic claws because I didn’t have all day for Wally to examine the locking mechanism when I could efficiently slash this door to pieces.

“Infidous metronome caustious,” Wally said, followed by other mutterings.

The symbols lining the doors peeled off the wall, glowing and changing their arrangement. Clicks and clanks followed their new placement, and the door swung open.

“How’d you do that?” I asked.

“Same secret code as the invitation on the card he offered. Guess Novus didn’t concern himself with changing his passwords.”

“What a moron. He’s just asking to be robbed.”

“Says the guy whose password is 1-2-3-4,” Wally said, mockery in his tone.

“What? It’s so obvious no one would ever suspect it. Plus, I’m not worried about some mortal stealing my telephone.” But I’d delight in chopping off the hands of one foolish enough to try.

This room oozed as a central hub where all mana and essence circulated, yet nothing in here indicated a prison for the demons Novus had acquired. Their Diabolic essence merely lingered stronger before moving elsewhere. Beneath the concrete floor, pipes creaked and trembled, funneling the magics like fuel to power this villa.

There was nothing noteworthy here aside from a large screen that filled the entire back wall and a control panel covered in Sylvan symbols. No exotic baubles on display here like in the room where Wally was detained. The single chair in front of the panel and screen was a good sign. Maybe this Novus fellow truly did work alone.

Wally traced his fingers along the operational controls because he always had to touch things. “This is like the helm.”

“The what?”

“Of a ship.”

“This is a house, Walter.”

“Yes,” he said, pointing to a blinking blob on the screen. “But it’s moving through time and space. Well, not like time travel exactly—which would be cool but involves too many quantum entanglements. Even briefly rewinding it could create an astronomical effect that causes an entire dimension to fold in on itself. I actually peer-reviewed a dissertation that explored the concepts…” Wally looked at my perplexed and unamused face. “But I digress. My point is, this room the helm, courses the navigation of the villa—also a ship—through the different planes of reality. These are probably the controls, which’ll take time to figure out, and there’s gotta be a blueprint around here somewhere. With that, we might be able to find where the Diabolics are being held or harvested or other not fun things. Hmmm.”

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