The Transference

C25

"You sure this is going to work?" Jessica asks for the umpteenth time.

My gaze moves from the door where it's been burning holes, waiting for Damian to return, it's been almost two hours. Between Jessica creating a fake map using her illusion spell and me trying to remember the spell that found the body of the Roman in the first place, we couldn't keep track of the time and it's almost midnight. If we get started now, we should be able to find him before tomorrow evening.

"It worked the last time and since this is an illusion, it'll give us an actual place to pinpoint," I reply and sit criss cross on the floor with Jessica kneeling on one knee in front of me, her hands on the floor as she keeps the maps stable. I think I know how her powers work, she connects with nature and can control it. She tends to get focus when she's feeling the surface of the earth. Now the hard surface floor is made of woods and even though it's gone through some process before it becomes the woodwork it is now, it was made from tree and it's part of the earth.

"Light 'em up," she says, tilting her head to the side.

We don't have chalk or candle to keep the circle enclosed, and we have nothing magical to use as a beacon, so we improvised, using bread crumbs. No one said it was compulsory to use chalk and candles. Jessica graceful created an elven star enclosed in a circle using the bread crumbs and the paper bags to shock each point of the star. I'm sitting in the middle with the fake map in front of me.

"Ignisia." I whisper and the paper bags lights up. We don't have much time, we can only do the spell until the paper burn out. Jessica is doing two things: making the map appear and keeping the bread crumbs from blowing away.

"Now! Cami."

I cut my palm with the paper cutter we found in one of the drawers and squeeze the blood on the fake map, the blood passed through it and drops on the floor because the map isn't really here but it will still point us to the right direction.

I close my eyes and say the spell, "Klunz dy alyi gufutin locoso Roman Benedict."

The blood begins to move and it does someone different this time, unlike last time when it split into four places, all the drops of blood I was about to squeeze in form together before moving in a single direction, Concord Hills.

"Concord Hills, I was right. It's here." I look at Jessica to see her struggling. It's draining her because the floor isn't exactly what she needs and it's taking everything in her to keep everything stable.

"Can you tell where?" She asks, stretching her neck to see but she can't get the actual image.

"If the map was enlarged, I think I can," I look at her and like she already know what I'm about to say, she gives me the 'do not' look but I can't not do it. "Do you think you can zoom in, please?" I beg, giving her the puppy eyes.

She groans and drops her second hand on the floor. "You realize this isn't Google map," she mutters and spread her fingers, the map begins to zoom in on the location.

I lean my head closer to see clearly. "It looks like a Cafe, and it's just the one." I tell her and lean away.

"Are you sure?" She asks.

I nod. "I'm very sure. You can cut it out."

She removes her hand from the ground and everything disappears, the crumbs blows away. "It's just a cafe, how hard can it be?" Jessica asks.

"How hard can it be? I mean there can't be that many Cafe in Concord Hills... Right?"

"You remember the direction of the cafe, we'll trace it." She says.

"Yeah, I do." I sigh and look at the door again, shaking my head when the person I want to see desperately refuses to walk through. "We should clean up and get some sleep, God knows we need it since we'll be doing much walk tomorrow."