Breach

"Hey, was that store there yesterday?"

I looked up from my mug of coffee, and followed my companion's gaze across the street. He was looking quite intently at a rather odd-looking curio store stuck into the middle of the otherwise rather mundane strip mall. Sitting between a laundromat on one side, and a shoe store on the other, was a shop covered in odd runes, with glowing crystals, monstrous skulls, and stranger things hanging in the window.

Of course, the Grim Grimoire wasn't new. The old store there had been around since at least the 70s. But there was no way that Mike could've known that. See, the Grim Grimoire was only visible to supernatural creatures: vampires, fey, dragons...

Mages like myself.

"Ahh, that? Yeah... it's been there for years." I tried my best not to let the surprise register on my face or in my voice. I've known Mike for three years now. Guy was a wizard with computers. Was why I was able to convince my boss to hire him on.

He just, well... he wasn't an actual wizard.

Maybe... maybe this was just a temporary rip in the Veil. Maybe some of the Grim Grimoire's wards got scratched or something, so its illusions fell and mundies could see it.

"So anyways, back to what we were talking about earlier. You really think that our client needs that-"

"OH HOLY SHIT!" My attempts at redirecting the conversation was completely blown off course by the fact that an ogre had just appeared in the middle of the street.

Well, not "just appeared." He'd been walking down the street normally, minding his own business, disguised as a human and all... and then his disguise fell, and now people were running away from the 8-foot-tall behemoth standing among them.

Once was odd. Twice, within seconds of each other? Something was going on here.

Though a part of me was deeply tempted to go and help the poor ogre, I would probably be of more use to the other supes here in preventing the Veil here from falling further.

"I... I need to check something," I smiled at Mike rather unconvincingly, standing up in a single, swift motion that, unfortunately, knocked my chair over.

"Lamar, what the heck is that?"

I looked over at the ogre, who was desperately trying to get away from the screaming people and, what was worse, the countless smartphones. "A very bad day."

I turned and headed inside the coffee shop, making a beeline to the bathroom. I needed some privacy to work out the spell here. I'll admit, I cringed internally at the people gawking at the ogre's misfortune. You know, if it had been any other day, these mundies would have been completely oblivious to us supes, but apparently the world had different plans for us today.

I fished around inside my jacket for my stick of charcoal as I entered into the washroom. First thing's first, a quick divination to determine the range of this breach. Then I can figure out who to contact to get a handle on this... I think I still had that MIB agent's number on me.

I quickly scrawled a few runes on an unmarked section of the tiled wall--last think I'd want is to add somebody's witty insult to the sigil and proceed to turn my skin purple, or blow out the entire wall. A quick glance to confirm I scribed everything right, and then-

"Seriously, Lamar, what the hell is-"

Well, guess which genius forgot to lock the door?

"Lamar?"

"Shut. The. Door." I growled though gritted teeth. "NOW!"

Thankfully, Mike wasn't an idiot and locked it as well, before asking "Umm... why are your eyes glowing?"

"Because I'm in the middle of channelling a divination, so please just be quiet!"

"A what?"

"Not now!"

I really couldn't handle any kind of interruption, not with my mind's eye pulling back as it did. All it rose up, I saw something that made my heart leap up into my throat: the entire neighbourhood was alight in a magical glow.

Some idiot had just caused a massive Veil breach.

"Lamar?"

Well, hey, at least the powers that be had better things to worry about than me casting a spell in front of a friend and colleague!

I let my hand drop from where it was pressed against the wall, and my mind's eye cleared, returning my focus entirely to one of the most ignoble places one could find oneself revealing the fundamental secrets of our world: a coffee shop bathroom.

I sighed and I slumped down against the the stall's siding. Okay, where to start...

"So... umm... man," Mike stumbled over his worlds, "I gotta ask this... are you some kind of wizard?"

Well, we can start there. "Yeah, actually, I am."

"And... and so was that some kind of spell?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"And... and all that stuff out there, in the street, that was actually magic?"

I tilted my hand back and forth. Not technically, but wasting my time explaining the difference between magic and other supernatural bullshit seemed a bit too academic at the moment.

"So... so does that make me a wizard too?"

I looked up and stared Mike in the eyes. "It took me a decade of study in my grandfather's basement pouring over the old books my ancestors started writing down back in New Orleans and Haiti, as well as a bunch of seriously dry theoretical crap written down by some of self-important sage back in Rome or Cairo or Shanghai some five hundred years ago before I could even cast my first spell, so what makes you think your punk ass could cast a-"

Wait... the entire neighbourhood was aglow in magic.

Shit.

I grabbed Mike and slammed him against the wall, ignoring his protests, and scribbled a rune onto his forehead with my charcoal.

"WHAT ARE YOU-"

"Not now!" I growled, and lay my palm upon the rune, letting my mind's eye loose once again, this time sending it racing along Mike's own anima trail.

A trail that was now brimming with potential.

Well, shit. Mike wasn't a wizard, but somebody just shoved a lot of magic into him. For reasons I couldn't even begin to comprehend.

And he probably wasn't unique in that regards.

I let the scrawny IT guy go and staggered back a bit, muttering under my breath. Now, to become a proper mage it took years of instruction and training to harness the thin strands of anima that was running through the human body. However, if you could make a human blaze like a ley line network, then their thoughts and desires could harness magic.

That what we in the supernatural world called psychics. Only there were maybe ten or so thousand psychics in the entire world. And somebody just decided to add a few hundred more to the mix today.

I really wasn't certain I could handle the ramifications of that now.

"Okay, man, you wanna explain what that was?"

I sighed, once again, and shrugged. "I was trying to confirm a hypothesis on how fucked we all are."

Well, that seemed to deflate Mike's attitude like a balloon. "Oh... uhh... and?"

"It's as if the Queen of fucking England was on the other end. It's a royal fucking."

And now the poor guy was scared. I felt bad, but at the moment, I was bloody terrified. If there was any horrors around, they'd be having a feast... if their feasting wouldn't reveal the fact that they're monsters who are suddenly surrounded by juiced-up humans.

Yeah, this was going to be a long day.

Alright, first steps first, we needed to get this contained so it the breach wouldn't spread and empower any more mundies.

Okay, to remember that inscription... I began scribing the runes of the Veil and law onto the wall with my charcoal. Now, these weren't very friendly looking runes, and Mike got the gist of them pretty quickly.

"Lamar, what are you doing?"

"Right now, calling the cops, basically. "

"What?"

"Somebody just committed a massive crime by basically revealing the world's most fundamental secrets to a bunch of people who probably aren't ready for it, so...." I shrugged and looked at the runes. I think that should do it! I placed my hand upon the wall, and muttered "Open..." beneath my breath.

The tiles cracked apart, creaking inwards as if I had just pushed on a set of double doors. Strange, shimmering mists billowed out of the jagged hole in the wall, wrapping around our feet.

"Alright, let's go," I said as I began to head on through to the other side.

"You know what, I think I'm fine." Mike replied, making his way to the exit.

I looked over my shoulder. "Suit yourself, but when the violence starts up and newbies start flinging around fireballs, you can't say I didn't warn you."

Mike took one nervous look at the bathroom door, before deciding that maybe the roiling mists weren't so bad, and raced in after me.

The door slammed shut behind him after he passed through, leaving nothing but old, worn stone behind him, and oppressive darkness all around us.

I scrawled the rune for light on my hand, and held it up, creating an impromptu torch, driving the coiling mists away.

"Alright, Mike. So, stick close, ignore the eyes in the darkness, and don't touch anything, okay?"

"Where are we?"

I headed down the corridor, looking for any sign of direction to the nearest library. "Think of it as the magical United Nations."

Let's just say I hoped someone here had answers. Or could at least could put a lid on all this before things took a turn for the worse.

With a sigh I headed off down a hallway. It was going to be a long day....